J. L. Firbank

   Creative Writer / Informative Writer 

Jonathan L. Firbank is currently writing for THINK, a Maltese research magazine with a focus on science and society. One role of this publication is to showcase the University of Malta's contributions to both, from empathic software, to groundwater monitoring, to supporting refugee learners. THINK's scope reaches beyond UM, Jonathan has had the privilege of writing on philosophies of happiness, the Great Resignation and the historical context of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, in which he has developed a specialised interest. The multidisciplinary nature of his informative writing is best exemplified with two special features. The first is an interview based piece on The Voynich Research Group, which brings AI and Medievalism together. The second is a personal research article on the chemistry and history behind Malta's national dish.

Jonathan has been writing since his age was in the single digits, winning regional poetry and journalism competitions while happily neglecting the rest of his studies. He studied English Literature at the University of Exeter and received a first class award for his work in narrative non-fiction, under the tutelage of novelist Professor Sarah Moss. From there he went to Bristol in order to write a play that was largely in verse and wholly performed by puppets. Putnam and Joy is a dark comedy that brings its titular characters into contact with interpretations of the 'four horseman'.  It is written in four acts and played on four separate stages surrounding the audience, who sat on cushions as children would to watch Punch and Judy. Directed by Taz Burns, a Tokyo based performance artist and Exeter alumni. The play is the culmination of their most involved research up until that point: the 14th-17th century apocalypticism explored by Jonathan and the history of puppetry Taz had been immersed in.

Jonathan has written a small collection of short stories and poetry as he has travelled through over 30 countries, accumulating some  additional publication credits along the way through advertising copy for local newspapers and magazines. Now able to write on a regular basis, Jonathan is currently finishing his first full novel. It's a 'low fantasy', set in a lost Bronze Age. It seeks to combine the lurid horror and frenetic pace of the best genre fiction with Jonathan's love for poetry and the dramatic landscapes that helped formulate it. Appropriately, the text depicts women and men fighting to turn transience into stability. Primordial echoes are made manifest around them until their very environment is rendered an enemy. Taking some cues from the world building of Robert E. Howard, the setting is hard bitten and owes much more to pre-history and deepest mythology than to the tried and tested fantasy tropes we have become used to. The novel will be named on completion.