UEA Chemistry graduate on being awarded top European literary prize
By: Alumni Team
We were delighted to hear from Maria Mamalinga (CHE89) recently, who has been awarded one of the most prestigious honours in Greek literature for her first novella Merkádo (Hestia, 2024).
Maria received the 2025 State Prize for Short Stories and Novellas for her first novella Merkádo, which explores coming of age, personal loss, identity, community, memory and survival.
The State Prize for Short Stories and Novellas by the Greek Ministry of Culture is widely regarded as the leading award in Greece. It recognises outstanding books by authors writing in Greek language.
Maria Mamalinga, who grew up in Rhodes, but lives and works in Athens, at the Athens School of Fine Art, is a fiction writer and film critic. She is also the author of multiple books for young children.
Reflecting on her year at UEA, Maria Mamalinga said: “At UEA I was studying chemistry, although I was longing to study literature and cinema. UEA gave me the opportunity to meet W. G. Sebald in person, but I wasn't able to take it. He was Professor of European Literature at the time. Unfortunately, I was not acquainted with his prose back then. Thinking back, I can describe that incident in my life with Italo Calvino’s prose: The Castle of Crossed Destinies.”
Her award-winning novel reflects deeply on the loss of the Sephardic community of Rhodes during World War II, which was the last transport of Jews from Greece to Auschwitz and one of the longest journeys in Holocaust history. It examines the grief over war destruction (1943-1945) and explores the themes of loss and survival.
“Winning the State Prize for Short Stories and Novellas by the Greek Ministry of Culture has been a real joy, as it feels like a win for perseverance and patience, for the courage and the will to change.” said Maria Mamalinga, speaking about the win.
She also shared advice for aspiring writers, saying: “don’t stop searching for and writing your truth.” Quoting Beckett, she added: “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”