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11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 MARCH 2019 LITERATURE ENVIRONMENT For ages flowers have inspired poets and artists as met- aphors of beauty, love, fragility, transience, etc. But for a bunch of spiders, flowers have a more sinister use: death traps! Meet the crab spiders, queen among which is the humped crab spider. This eight-legged beauty is expert at ambush, hiding among petals from where it pounces on hapless insects that fly in for a drink of nectar. An added stealth feature in this spider is its ability to sometimes change colour to match the flower. The humped crab spider (M. brimba ħotbija) also builds itself tents by bending petals into miniature tepees (look for these structures especially on crown daisies – lellux). Incidentally, crab spiders are so called because they like to hold their long front legs in open, front-facing crab-like fashion. Oh and they are harmless to people. Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us. You can also support us by sending us a donation - www.foemalta.org/donate GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 553: FILM CLUB Watch the full interview and find out how to support local farmers and win by visiting https://foemalta.org/goodfood Text Victor Falzon Photo Desirée Falzon 650. HUMPED CRAB SPIDER THE Campus Book Festival, organised by the National Book Council in collaboration with Għaqda tal-Malti - Università, is now in its sixth edition, and from its inception it has aimed at providing a space for Maltese publishers and authors to pro- mote their work with a mature audience, such as university students. Only a few weeks are left until the launch of the Festival on 27 March 2019 at the University quadrangle. Students as well as the general public are invited to engage in the Festival activities, that all revolve around books: discussions, book presenta- tions and launches, interviews, animated readings, tours, quiz- zes – there are plenty of events on offer across the three days. Some of the book-related ac- tivities are listed in this article and more details on all events will be shared on the Campus Book Festival Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ events/281884592429111/). In line with the new global trend in soaring poetry book sales, this year the National Book Council has made a point to give some much-needed space to poetry, notably under- represented albeit statistics show a growth in its popularity – particularly among teenagers and young millennials ((htt- ps://www.theguardian.com/ books/2019/jan/21/poetry- sales-soar-as-political-millenni- alssearch-for-clarity). British poet, literary critic and translator Rod Mengham was invited as the Festival's foreign guest. Dr Mengham's main in- terests are 19th and 20th cen- tury English literature, espe- cially Dickens; the 1930s and the 1940s and contemporary fiction and poetry. He will be at the Festival across the three days (27–29 March) and will take part in three main activi- ties: a session about translating poetry with professor of Trans- lation Theory Clare Vassallo and translator Kevin Saliba; a book-club activity with Eng- lish-Language students cen- tred around his latest book Grimspound and Inhabiting Art (Carcanet); and a much awaited interview with Maltese poet Antoine Cassar. Yet another poetry event was organised by the National Book Council for Antoine Cassar's Erbgħin Jum (EDE Books) on Friday 29 March. Last Novem- ber Erbgħin Jum, a book-long poem about childhood trauma, depression, and walking as self- therapy, won Antoine the Na- tional Book Prize for poetry. On Wednesday, the poet will be in- terviewed by Prof. Adrian Gri- ma, the poet and academic who has been part of the Inizjamed team and of the organisation of the yearly Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival. Antoine Cassar will also be interviewing Zvezdan Reljić on his latest pub- lication Wiċċna (EDE books), a book that features aesthetical, anthropological and literary es- says on aspects of physiogno- my, identity and photography, each written in a different lan- guage that has influenced Malta throughout its history. On Friday 29 March, respect- ed Christian spirituality aca- demic Rev. Dr Charlo Camilleri and Ph.D candidates in Phi- losophy Kurt Borg and Rob- ert Farrugia Flores will tackle Gioele Galea's memoir Tħabbat Xtaqtek: Djarju mill-Eremitaġġ (Horizons) from both a spiritual and a secular point of view. The book is a poetic diary/memoir recounting the author's authen- tic experience at the Saint Gi- rolamo hermitage in the green heart of Perugia. The prose is more than diaristic, it is a subtle and elegant narrative depicting a persona in search of God, ex- periencing the despair of doubt. The National Book Council brought together publishing ex- perts who will be discussing the importance of proofreading and editing in the process of book- making. Elizabeth Cortis (an English language proofreader, book editor and owner of Proof- reading Malta); Keith Attard (a certified proofreader); and BDL publisher Audrey Cassar and Merlin Publisher editor Kristina Chetcuti will tackle topics that are of interest to the publisher, the editor, the proofreader and the writer alike. Among oth- ers, they will be discussing is- sues like identifying what type of editor one should hire; the different levels of editing; self- publishing versus working with a publisher; the benefits of re- cruiting an editor. Two books in translation will also be launched during the Festival. On Wednesday Fa- raxa Publishing will present L-Intruża and L-Għomja, the translation by Prof. Toni Aqui- lina of two tragedies by Maurice Maeterlinck. On Friday Hori- zons will launch Mademoiselle Perlé u Aktar, a translation of the book by Guy de Maupas- sant, and during the event Prof. Dominique Lanni will discuss the role it plays in French Lit- erature. A discussion about the key fea- tures in producing a film based on a literary work of art will take place on Friday 29 March and will be based on Camilla, the winner of the 2018 NBC Malta ShortFilm Literary Contest. Subtitling adaptation, transla- tion and text adaptation will be the main topics bringing to- gether director Stephanie Sant, who together with writer Teo- dor Reljić adapted Clare Azzo- pardi's short story Camilla into the film screenplay and trans- lated the Maltese dialogues into English subtitles; Giselle Spiteri Miggiani, who introduced Au- diovisual Translation as a new area of studies at the University of Malta; and Shadeena's pro- ducer Martin Bonnici. A special treat to this year's Campus Book Festival is an exhibition of books and their related sketches and illustra- tions. This will street through- out the three days of the Fes- tival. Local artists Jon Grech, Marisa Attard, Moira Scicluna Zahra, Steve Bonello, Julinu, Raymond Dominic Grech, Ste- ven Scicluna and Marco Scerri will exhibit the original sketch that found its way to become a book cover. Each of the artists' initial sketch or illustration as well as the published book will be on display. Visit the exhi- bition on all three days of the Festival. These are but a few of the events at this year's Campus Book Festival. Be sure to tune in for more information follow- ing the NBC Facebook page and the Festival's event page. The Campus Book Festival 2019 will be running from Wednesday 27 to Friday 29 March, from 9am– 4pm on Wednesday and Thurs- day, and from 9am till late on Friday. All about books: literary events at the Campus Book Fest 2019