Profile: Raymond Fenech Gonzi

Born in 1958 in the small fishing village of St. Julian, Malta, Raymond Fenech Gonzi embarked on his writing career as a freelance journalist at 18 working for leading newspapers, In-Nazzjon, Il-Mument, The Democrat, The Times and Sunday Times of Malta.

In more recent years, he edited two local nation-wide distributed magazines and founded and managed one of the largest in-house advertising agencies.

In 2003, the author was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and was temporarily forced to an early retirement. For nine months he was in hospital for intense chemotherapy treatment and on completion had a stroke. Miraculously, the author recovered well enough to get back on track and founded his own business in copywriting and PR.

Between June and November 2017, the author was nominated twice for prestigious Literary Pushcart Prize in the USA by two different publishers. The first nomination came from the bi-lingual Adelaide Literary Magazine of New York and Lisbon after winning the 1st Prize in an essay competition with his story, The Mysterious Priest and in November he was also nominated for the same prize by the Los Angeles online PoeticDiversity Literary Magazine for his poem, The Electric Storm.

Fenech Gonzi has two journalism diplomas, a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing and more recently obtained a PHD. He was awarded a scholarship in Writing Therapy by the Creative ‘Righting’ Center, Touro College, Hofstra University, New York in 2009 and was mentored personally by the founder director of the National Association of Poetry Therapy, USA, Professor Sherry Reiter. He has furthered his studies in writing therapy by enrolling for two diploma courses in Therapeutic Journaling with The UK College of Holistic Training, of which he is an academic advisor in this subject as well as in creative writing.

The author has completed several other specialized courses in various fields of writing and is also a qualified journalist, copywriter and editor.

The author has published research on the ghosts of Malta in the International Directory of the Most Haunted Places by Penguin Books, USA. Between 2006 and 2008, the author completed four courses in paranormal studies with Flamel College, USA and was awarded a diploma in paranormal studies by the same college for his 158-page illustrated thesis, The Ghosts of York. As a result during the same year, Fenech Gonzi founded the Paranormal Investigations & Research Foundation (Malta). Last year, he was forced to cease all activities in paranormal investigations for health reasons. In 2014, he completed a short course in parapsychology with the Edinburgh University, Scotland and is now studying parapsychology and paranormal studies with The UK College of Holistic Training.

In the author’s own words about poetry: I like to write poetry in a language everyone can understand, without mincing words, or losing my way in the obscure, or the abstract. Poetry from its very origins was intended to entertain the masses, even the illiterate. It is another form of communication and therefore each word has to be simple enough for the majority reader to understand. Like Hemingway, I think ‘the most important equipment for a writer is a built-in, shock-proof shit detector’, which can identify nebulous sentences. Readers usually want to associate themselves with the poet’s feelings, but to do so they first have to understand his writing.

The Author published poems in several magazines and literary journals in 16 countries including among others, The Envoy, official newsletter of the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance, Canada, White Ash Literary Magazine, USA, Boston Poetry Magazine, USA The Ambassador, the official literary magazine of the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance, the newsletter of the Professional Writers’ Special Interest British Group MENSA, UK, Poetry Canada, Flaming Arrows, Ireland, Expressions Online Magazine, Canada, Quantum Leap, Scotland, Verses Magazine, USA, Electric Acorn, Ireland, Poetic Licence, UK, Poemata the main poetry journal of the Canadian Poetry Association, Canada, Juju Magazine, Northern Ireland, Other Poetry, UK, The Affectionate Punch, UK, Breakfast All Day Magazine, France, the Adelaide Literary Magazine, USA and Lisbon, The Quail Bell Magazine, USA and Phenomenal Literature, Vol. 3, Issue 1, India. Many of his poems have also been published in numerous poetry anthologies in Canada, the USA and the UK. Short stories and literary essays were also published in several other literary magazines and anthologies.

His latest books, The Incident of the Mysterious Priest and Other Stories and a new poetry collection, Growing with the Shadows were launched at the international book fair Expo America in New York and subsequently at the International Book Fair in Frankfurt.

Articles on various themes by the author were also published in Renaissance Magazine, USA, the Globe Trotter Magazine, Living 2000, Island Life Visitor’s Guide, and The Sunday Times Motoring Magazine Malta.
He is listed in the International Who’s Who of Poetry and Writers, UK, The Poetry Kit Online, UK, the Who’s Who of Maltese Authors and Poets Directory, the Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English edited by Eugene Benson, University Professor Emeritus of English, L.W. Conolly Vol 1,2,3, which includes more than 1,600 entries written by more than 600 internationally recognized scholars. The directory explores the effect of the colonial and post-colonial experience on literatures in English worldwide. In this encyclopaedia reference is made to his first two poetry books, Within the Edges of Immortality (1994) and Poignant Voices (2000).

Raymond designs custom-made courses in various writing disciplines for both adults and children. These include creative writing courses in poetry, fiction, article and short story writing and basic programmes in journalism, copywriting and PR. Course information is available on his web site:
The author was appointed an Associate Editor for both Adelaide Literary Magazine and their Book Publishing House which has offices in both Lisbon and New York in 2017 but relinquished his position in 2020.

He is currently working on four books: his memoirs, Forgotten Fairy-tales; The Benefits of Creative Writing and the memoirs of Malta’s top exorcist priest and a leading veterinary surgeon.

His poetry now forms part of the master’s degree in creative writing programme, at Holguin University in Cuba.

The author was assigned to edit the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance members' anthology, The Dream the Glory and the Strife published by SandCrab Books in 2017 and more recently was called upon to write a 17,000 word review on Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century by its editor, James Deahl who is also a well-known Canadian author, poet and publisher himself.