Abigail Ardelle Zammit is a poet, editor, translator and educator from the island of Malta. She has a PhD in Creative Writing (Lancaster, UK) and is a Senior Lecturer in English at the G.F. Abela Junior College (Malta). Her latest poetry collection, Leaves Borrowed from Human Flesh, was published by Etruscan Press, Wilkes University, 2025. 

In 2015, Abigail won second prize in the Sentinel Poetry Book Competition (London), following which, her second collection, Portrait of a Woman with Sea Urchin, was published. The judges Andy Willoughby and Bob Beagrie described Portrait of a Woman with Sea Urchin as “a sensual and passionate collection” which “makes the language sing.  The poet shows a keen eye for focused detail that moves beyond mere picture-making into layers of symbolism and metamorphosis.  Abigail A Zammit displays a capacity for speaking through masks, shifting personae without losing a coherent sense of voice.”

Her first poetry collection, Voices from the Land of Trees, which takes its inspiration from Guatemala’s violent past, was published by Smokestack (UK, 2007).  The poet Graham Mort describes it as “a visceral and moving work.  Angry and compassionate, Zammit’s own voice discovers an excoriating yet redemptive timbre, confronting oppression and suffering whilst remaining true to moral complexity and ambivalence.”

Abigail has had poems, translations and reviews published in international journals including Matter, Black Iris, Magma, CounterText, Tupelo Quarterly, Trafika Europe, Boulevard, Gutter, Modern Poetry in Translation, Myslexia, Poetry International, The SHOp, Bracken, Iota, Luna Luna, Aesthetica, Ink, Sweat and Tears, High Window, Freefall, The Ekphrastic Review, O:JA&L, The Ofi Press, Orbis, Markings, Pratik, Empty House, Golden Walkman, The Literary Nest, Drunken Boat and Action, Spectacle.  Her work has also appeared in the anthologies Peleton, Smokestack Lighning, Ed. Andy Croft (Middlesbrough: Smokestack, 2021), The Shop – An Anthology of Poetry, Eds. Wakeman and Elfick (Ireland: Liffey Press, 2020), Grand Tour – Reisen durch die junge Lyrik Europas, Eds. J Wagner and F Italiano, (Germany: Hanser, 2018), Wara Settembru (Llubljana: 2018), Not a Drop: Just Oceans of Poetry (Beautiful Dragons Collaboration, 2016) and The Montreal Poetry Prize Anthology 2022, Ed. Eli MacLaren (Canada: Vehicule Press, 2023).

Collaboration with other writers during the Inizjamed 2016 Mediterranean Festival led to the publication of two bilingual pamphlets with Maltese poet Gioele Galea (Half Spine, Half Wild Flower – Nofsi Spina, Nofsi Fjur Selvaġġ and A Scatter of Leaves).  Abigail is also a translation editor for Tupelo Press and the author of The Poetry Buddy: A Seamus Heaney Guide for Advanced Level Students (2020).   Two of her most recent manuscripts have been shortlisted in international competitions.