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CULTURE BOOKS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 16 THE Malta Book Festival is the most important book event in the Maltese cultur- al calendar. It will open its doors at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta, on Wednesday 6 November and will be going on until Sunday 10 November. The Festival grew out of the Malta Book Fair, which was first held in 1979, into a festival that celebrates the book culture and seeks to represent the book in its en- tirety – not just as any ob- ject of consumption, but as something that involves the reader beyond the confines of the book. For this reason, the event was rebranded as the Malta Book Festival in 2013. Year after year, the Festi- val has expanded in scope both in terms of participa- tion and as a cultural event. It is free of charge and open to the public mornings and evenings. The programme of events for the 2019 Malta Book Festival is packed with well over ninety events that in- clude book launches and presentations featuring lo- cal and international au- thors, conferences, talks and fun activities for chil- dren. The events are set up ei- ther by the National Book Council or by the partici- pants in the Festival, which include Malta's and interna- tional publishers, booksell- ers and NGOs. The international flavour of the Festival has also in- creasingly come to the fore with the inclusion of for- eign participants – both ex- hibitors and guest authors. Weekday mornings are re- served for school children and students, and a special programme of events is pre- pared for them. The programme of events booklet is distributed to eve- ry household in Malta and Gozo through Maltapost, in an effort to reach as wide as an audience as possible. The Festival will be open- ing with a literary confer- ence relating to the literary genres of sci-fi and fantasy under the title of 'Strange New Worlds: a conference on science fiction and fan- tasy literature', moderated by sci-fi author and transla- tor Mark-Anthony Fenech. The participants will be Loranne Vella, the Brus- sels-based Maltese writer and winner of the 2018 Na- tional Book Prize with Rokit (Merlin Publishers); Malta- born and UK-based author John Courtenay Grimwood; American novelist Kali Wal- lace; and Irish writer Dave Rudden. Guest authors par- ticipating in the conference will also be appearing in other activities during the Festival, including an au- thor event dedicated to each of them on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 in the afternoon. This year the Festival's special guest is Maltese Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, most notable for presiding over the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal in 2018 and serving on the 30th Cir- cuit Court in the state of Michigan. She is also the author of two classic detective nov- els: Feel No Evil, and Triple Cross Killer. She will be discussing her legal career, Maltese ances- try, and the inspiration be- hind her crime fiction. Friday is dedicated to po- etry. Weare celebrating the gen- re with the award-winning ceremony of the newly- launched Doreen Micallef National Poetry Contest, an opportunity for budding and more established writ- ers to evaluate their own abilities and the hallmarks of a good poem in Maltese. The Contest also cel- ebrates the memory of Do- reen Micallef, one of the most distinctive voices of her generation, a voice that was intimate, confessional and female. The Festival will also be screening the winning pro- ject of the Malta Literary Short Film Contest 2019: 'Ġulina', adapted from the short story of the same title by Alfred Sant. The film, which is cur- rently in its production phase, will have its premiere screening during the Festi- val as part of an event that will also feature a discussion about film adaptation with the director, Peter Sant, and the author. The production company Sajjetta will also be present- ing the first episode of the new docudrama series 'Stor- ja ta' Storja' focusing on the work of Alfred Sant and directed by Charlie Cauchi and Martin Bonnici. An event will be dedicated to Lillian Sciberras, the re- cipient of the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Book Prize. There will be a panel dis- cussion, selected readings and the screening of a film featuring an interview with Lillian on her career as a li- brarian and as a writer. Members of the public are urged to follow the Coun- cil's website ktieb.org.mt or MBF 2019 FB event page for more updates and details of the events. All you need to know about the Malta Book Festival 2019