The National Book Council is pleased to announce the upcoming Malta Book Festival 2018, the most prominent and prestigious book celebration of the year, which will take place at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta, starting from Wednesday 7 November and going on till Sunday 11 November. The poster for the Festival is the work of well-known Maltese visual artist and illustrator Lisa Falzon, who also produced the artwork for last year’s edition.

The full programme will be published in the second week of September and will later be de- livered in printed form to all households in Malta and Gozo.

As is customary, the Festival will open with a conference, which this year will be themed on Literature and Diaspora and will be led by a number of foreign and local authors. Among them is Lou Drofenik, the Maltese-Australian writer who won the National Book Prize 2017 with her novel The Confectioner’s Daughter. The foreign authors attending the conference are Philip O’Ceallaigh, Vera Duarte and Nikola Petkovic.

On weekday mornings the Festival will welcome school visits and a special programme of cul- tural and fun activities has been prepared for the students, including drama pieces, reading activities and meetings with writers. The Malta School of Music, the Malta Arts School and the Malta Drama and Dance school will also contribute to the morning events with literary-themed performances and a visual art installation.

Among the innovations of this year’s edition, there will also be a performance by the duo Danusan, and the tickets for the performance will be redeemable as vouchers for books on sale in the exhibition halls of the MCC during the Festival. The tickets will be available for sale online in the first week of September. Another important innovation for 2018 is an extension of the exhibition space: this year’ edition will include an extra hall for exhibitors and an extension of the activity areas for the many book presentations, discussions, launches and cultural activit- ies that will take place. Later on the name of the renowned international author who will be this year’s special guest will also be revealed.