AudreyFriggieri
Biography
Audrey Friġġieri is an educator and writer who appreciates and finds beauty in the sacredness of the imaginary. She has worked in the education sector for more than thirty years, and is always seeking new and possibly mischievous ways to nurture and nourish children’s imagination. Friġġieri often contributes to Sagħtar magazine, as well as to various newspapers in English and Maltese on topics of a social nature, particularly gender, feminism, gender-based violence, education and youth.
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Friġġieri was born in Ħal Luqa in 1968. She completed her B.A. in Education in 1991, a Master’s degree in Education in 2005, and then delved deeper into Youth Studies for her PhD, which she completed in 2023. She has also studied Systemic Family Psychotherapy as part of her professional development and is a lecturer of Sociology at the Faculty for Social Wellbeing of the University of Malta. Friġġieri was entrusted with the role of Commissioner on gender-based violence and domestic violence in Malta (2020-2023), where she used her experience and knowledge to raise awareness about women’s and girls’ rights, family health and children’s victimisation in toxic home environments.
Friġġieri feels that writing is not a hobby but a preoccupation with life. She is interested in perceiving the familiar in unfamiliar ways, and in interrogating what is considered ordinary, such that it becomes extraordinary. Her first work for children was published in 2013, introducing the public to the original character Miss Ambrożja Pulis Kiftaranipenġini – an eccentric teacher with superhuman powers who whisks her students away on fantastic adventures far away from the traditional classroom, to learn by experiencing different situations that challenge them to dig deep and use their innate abilities. There are currently four books in this series.
Among her most important works Friġġieri quotes her books for adults. L-Iskjav ta’ Isabel (Isabel’s Slave) (2019), which was shortlisted for the National Book Prize, speaks about the tragedy and comedy of loving someone who cannot and perhaps will not love you back. L-Istorja li rrakkuntat Nina (The Story Nina Told) (2016) and Tangerine Glow (2017) are stories full of hope, despair and ultimately the mystery that is love and life.
She is currently experimenting with a story for young adults, tackling the claustrophobic and numbing reality of how society tends to create labels for people to fit into, and how using such labels and consistently following societal trends ultimately kills what we need most in order to live a fulfilled life. What is it that will help us find ourselves? We cannot and must not be pinned down so easily!
Biography written by Ruth Bezzina
