The National Book Council is publishing the programme of events for the Book Festival on Campus 2017, which will take place at University on the 4-5-6th of April, starting 10:00 hours and continuing till late. The purpose of the Festival is to promote literature as a whole, while at the same time giving publishers and book distributors a space in which they can promote their material with a mature audience, such as university students.
The publishers and distributors participating in the festival are HORIZONS, FARAXA BOOKS, SENSIELA KOTBA SOĊJALISTI (SKS), STUDENTS PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, EDE, KOTBA CALLEJA, and BDL, some of whom will be setting up events of their own. Among these we find HORIZONS who will launch a poetry collection by Prof. Kenneth Wain, entitled ‘Who looks at the sun anymore’ and FARAXA who have also prepared a poetry evening. KOTBA CALLEJA will be holding two workshops on the art of book binding.

Apart from the publishers and book distributors, other participants in the Festival have contributed to the programme. The poetess Miriam Calleja will lead a workshop on the topic of creative writing which is open to all writers of all levels. The event will involve a number of exercises and games, prompts and guidelines, as well as advice on how to improve one’s writing. The event will close with a reading of Calleja’s poetry both in English and in Maltese. Other events of academic interest include ‘Il-Malti u l-Barranin’, set up by Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Lsien Malti, where a number of people who studied Maltese as a foreign language will talk about what motivated them to learn Maltese and why Maltese of all the languages in the world, and ‘X’naqbad ngħid?’, a talk and discussion on linguistic variations in Maltese, which will be led by Michael Spagnol.

The special guest at the festival will be Caroline Smailes, the renowned author of ‘In Search of Adam’, ‘Like Bees to Honey’, ’99 Reasons Why’ and ‘The Drowning of Arthur Braxton’, which is currently being made into a film.
Caroline Smailes, who is of Maltese descent, was born in Newcastle and has studied creative writing. During the festival she will be leading workshops on the subjects of creative writing, aspects of narration such as the choice of dialogue diction and location, the need for convincing and consistent characters and the question of linguistic inheritance. There will also be an activity in which excerpts of Smailes’ work will be read and members of the public will be able to address the author directly.
Every year the programme of the Festival includes a musical performance, which this year will be given by the HipHop act Marmalja, whose performance will close the first night of the Festival, that is 4th April.
We ask the public to read  the programme and to learn about the events that have been prepared as they are sure to find much more than one event that piques their interest. The programme will be available in print form and distributed in public places in the coming few days.

4 April

10.00 Il-Ġgant id-Dħuli // Faraxa Books

Il-Ġgant id-Dħuli by Gladys Masters, translated by Toni Aquilina. Readings by primary school students and other related activities.

11.00 Grappling with storytelling structure // Teodor Reljic

Teodor Reljic, author of TWO and the upcoming space opera comic book series MIBDUL, will speak about learning storytelling during both projects. Teodor will speak candidly about the only way he learned to write fiction – by actually doing it. This of course implies a degree of trial and error, as was made evident to Teodor towards the end of the writing process for TWO.

12.00 Authentic language and convincing dialogue // Caroline Smailes

The workshop focuses on how dialogue and place connect, and the restraints that these cause for both writer and reader. How do different languages come into play in Like Bees to Honey? How did Caroline Smailes include Maltese in the novel? Was it a need to preserve heritage and language?

13.00 Il-Malti u l-barranin // Il-Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti

During this discussion we will be meeting people from different spheres of life who learned Maltese for several reasons. What attracted them to such a language? Why Maltese? And it is true that Maltese is a difficult language to learn?

14.00 Naqra, Nann // L-Għaqda tal-Malti, Malta Libraries, San Vinċenz de
Paul

During this session Dianne Giordmaina will lead a reading session for the elderly. Everyone is welcome to join in!

17.00 TAĦŻIŻ5 // L-Aġenzija Żgħażagħ u l-Għaqda tal-Malti

The general public is invited to join this year’s participants of TAĦŻIŻ5 for a creative writing workshop.

18.30 Who looks at the sun anymore // Horizons

Horizons will launch a poetry collection by Prof. Kenneth Wain entitled Who looks at the sun anymore.

20.00 Marmalja

Marmalja have been around since 2010, and were previously part of No Bling Show. Their style is unique to the local scene, with authentic sounds created by Drinu and the art of writing lyrics in the local hip hop scene. The themes they tap into are sociopolitical and of a controversial nature. Their first album, Demm Ġdid, was launched in 2015.

5  April

10.00 Hubertus von Amelunxen on Photography as Representation // Students’ Philosophy Society

Prof. Hubertus von Amelunxen will be giving a talk on photography as representation. The talk will make use of Roland Barthes and Walter Benjamin in order to deal with some of the concepts broached in Prof. Amelunxen’s seminar on Photography – Image of the Becoming. There will be a panel discussion, with the participation of Professor Vince Briffa and of Dr Clive Zammit.

12.00 Engaging with words // Miriam Calleja

This workshop is suitable for creative writers of all levels and backgrounds. Throughout this session, you will be able to hone into your own “flow of work” through the means of exercises and games, prompts, and guided play, as well as tips on writing more efficiently. You are welcome to write in any language! This will be followed by a reading of poetry in Maltese and English by Miriam Calleja.

13.00 Conjuring characters // Caroline Smailes

This workshop will focus on the need of convincing and consistent characters in narratives using a set of questions. The writers will leave having created a character they can then use in their own writing. It would also touch on dialogue/tense choices.

14.00 Is-sengħa tal-legatorija // Glen Calleja

What does it take to make a book by hand? What book structures do we know of, and what makes a structure different to another? This demonstration by Glen Calleja focuses on the art of traditional legature, and how this can be used to create books. A short explanation of the tools will be followed by the methods applied to design a book, from the initial idea to the final product.

17.00 Il-lingwa tal-kċina // Sinteżi (l-Għaqda tal-Malti)

During this session we’ll discuss the Maltese language and the kitchen … the language of the kitchen. In the old days, they used to say that Maltese was the kitchen language. But what happens when we look into the words we use in the kitchen? Clifford Jo Żahra will be moderating the discussion with students who have worked on the topic.

18.00 Fużjoni: poeżija u films // Inizjamed

This activity, curated by Noel Tanti, will focus on films and poetry. Three students from the Maltese Language Department at the University of Malta will choose three poems and combine them with three films chosen by students from the Film Studies. During the Festival the poems are read with the films in the background and a discussion will follow.

19.00 Fight Club

Screening of Fight Club with Maltese subtitles by Simon Cassar. Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the carrying the same name by Chuck Palahniuk.

6  April

10.30 Place // Caroline Smailes

How did Malta became a character in Smailes’s writing? How do senses conjure place? How does one remain faithful to the location and the problems this might cause? This workshop would also look at the present tense and why Smailes chose to put her characters, in the now, in a location that was different from where she wrote.

11.30 Is-sengħa tal-legatorija // Glen Calleja

What does it take to make a book by hand? What book structures do we know of, and what makes a structure different to another? This demonstration by Glen Calleja focuses on the art of traditional legature, and how this can be used to create books. A short explanation of the tools will be followed by the methods applied to design a book, from the initial idea to the final product.

12pm X’naqbad ngħid? Il-varjazzjoni lingwistika fil-Malti // Michael Spagnol

During this hour we’ll look at a number of linguistic variations whilst we try to answer these questions: (a) what is linguistic variation?, (b) why do we find it in language? and (c) where does it come from?

13.00 Films qosra // KNK

In previous years, the National Book Council organised the contest for short films based on short stories, namely “Laqgħa ma’ mara morbi” (Immanuel Mifsud) and “Dar ir-Rummien” (Pierre J. Mejlak). These two films will be shown again during this event.

14.00 Il-preservazzjoni tal-karta // HoASA

During this hour long talk, we’ll discuss paper preservation, book restoration and the archives.

17.00 Min hu nies? // Jean Paul Borg

Elena Cardona will interview Jean Paul Borg who last November launched the collection of short stories Mhux Nies (Klabb Kotba Maltin). Both Elena and Jean Paul will read excerpts from the book. The audience is invited to ask questions too.

18.00 Qari ta’ poeżiji // Faraxa

Poetry readings in Maltese and English by Marlene Saliba, Therese Pace, Dion P. P. Pizzuto, and Sarah Springham on various subjects and in a relaxed atmosphere.

19.30 Caroline Smailes: Meet the author

This year’s special guest, Caroline Smailes, is the author of the acclaimed debut novel, In Search of Adam (2007,The Friday Project/HarperCollins. The Big Issue North declared the book “an engrossing and touching read from a new talent.” Since then Caroline has written other books such as Black Boxes, international bestseller Like Bees to Honey, 99 reasons why, and The drowning of Arthur Braxton. The film of The Drowning of Arthur Braxton is in post-production, with an expected spring 2017 release. During this event Caroline will read from her work and will be interviewed by John Bonello.

5 – 6 – 7 TA’ APRIL

IL-BIBLIJOTEKA TAL-UNIVERSITÀ

A library tour with a difference. The public is invited to visit the closed stacks at the Melitensia, where no access is usually granted to the general public.

A presentation of books and valuable manuscripts.