The 11th edition of the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival organized by Inizjamed will be held on Thursday 25th, Friday 26th and Saturday 27th August, at Fort St Elmo, in Valletta, at 20:00. Several distinguished writers from various countries are reading in the Festival, which also features three Maltese jazz and alternative music bands, a book stall, and food and drinks. Entrance to all events is free.

The authors who have confirmed their participation are Samantha Barendson (France), Roja Chamankar (Iran), the Cuban-born Rodolfo Häsler who lives in Barcelona, Elias Khoury (Lebanon), Ciwanmerd Kulek (Kurdish region, Turkey), Marc Nair (Singapore), Abderrahim Sail (Morocco), and Joe P. Galea, Daniel Massa, Rita Saliba, Mark Vella and Abigail Ardelle Zammit from Malta.

The festival also features screening of poetry films which are part of the Poetry on Film initiative, organised by Valletta 2018 in collaboration Inizjamed. This innovative project weaves Maltese poetry into film. While using poetry as a starting point, directors shall nonetheless take the liberty to interpret the poems dynamically through their visual art, action and music.

Writer and poet Immanuel Mifsud had launched this process by singling out several poems by eighties Maltese literature representatives Lillian Sciberras and Ray Mahoney. Interested participants attended a workshop led by Yasmin Fedda (Highlight Arts) which was then followed by an official call for proposals. Out of the nine submitted proposals the jury’s final choice fell on Scerris’ Meta Tiġi MariRos and Mahoney’s Tibqa’ Int. Sciberras’ work has been adapted for a self-same titled movie by director Martin Bonnici (Shadeena Films) while directors Gilbert Calleja and Matthew Attard based their film LMOL on Mahoney’s poetry.

Meta Tiġi MariRos will be shown on Thursday 25th while LMOL will be shown on Saturday 27th.

The 11th edition of the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival, together with the Literature Across Frontiers translation laboratory, are organised by Inizjamed as part of the Literary Europe Live project, co-financed by Creative Europe EU, and co-ordinated by the Literature Across Frontiers. The Festival is being supported by Arts Council Malta, Valletta 2018 Foundation, Heritage Malta, Għaqda tal-Malti – Università, and Highlight Arts. The Festival bears the EFFE quality seal.

The entry to all Festival related events and the Festival itself is free of charge.