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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 MARCH 2020 8 CULTURE LITERATURE The art of protest at the 2020 Campus Book Festival DRAWING on the recent con- tributions from local artists and writers, the 2020 Campus Book Festival is dedicating an evening to literature and music of protest. The National Book Council has invited a number of established and emerging literary writers and musical practitioners to par- ticipate in a roundtable discus- sion starting at 5pm on Friday 27 March, and an Open Mic session at 6:45pm. Mark Doty, the American poet and winner of a number of pres- tigious literary awards including the T. S. Eliot Prize and the US National Book Award, is expect- ed to be reading from his works at the Open Mic. Protest literature has been af- forded many definitions. It is at times shocking, seeks to engender empathy, or is a direct or symbolic form of activism. But it all recog- nises the necessity for change and reaches out to its reader to share its values, as a guide, or by draw- ing a mirror to society. The various expressions of pro- test literature in Malta, written and performed over the past months and beyond, will be dis- cussed in the roundtable discus- sion with the title 'The Art of Protest', moderated by Jean Paul Borg and with the participation of Immanuel Mifsud, Antoine Cas- sar, Adrian Grima, Wayne Flask, Nadia Mifsud Mutschler, Mario Vella, Alex Vella Gregory, and Noah Fabri. The Open Mic is once again being organised in collaboration with Inizjamed. The event will be carrying the same theme and sets out to open a space for the oral performance of poetry, prose and song. It is open to all students and the general public to share their works or simply listen to the works from an outstanding line-up of con- firmed writers and performers. Roundtable participants: Nadia Mifsud has published two poetry collections: Zugraga (2009) and Kantuniera 'l bogħod, which was awarded the 2016 National Book Prize for Poetry. She is also a three-time winner of the National Poetry Contest. Her debut novel Ir-rota daret dawra (kważi) sħiħa was pub- lished in 2017 and several of her short stories have been published in anthologies both in Malta and abroad. Her translation of Imma- nuel Mifsud's novel In the name of the father (and of the son) was published in France by Gallimard in 2016. Wayne Flask is a member of Moviment Graffitti. He made his theatrical debut with Sibna ż-Żejt (2015), the satirical play directed for Staġun Teatru Malti by Sean Buhagiar. His novel Kapitali (Mer- lin Publishers), a satirical take on Malta's political duopoly, was published in 2017. Immanuel Mifsud is the au- thor of a number of acclaimed short-story collections, novels and poetry books. He was award- ed the European Union Prize for Literature with his book Fl-Isem tal-Missier (u tal-Iben), which has since been translated to eight lan- guages. Antoine Cassar is a Maltese po- et and translator known for his book-length poem Erbgħin Jum (EDE books, 2017), and Passaport (2009, 2020). Erbgħin Jum, which deals with the overcoming of trau- ma through walking, was awarded the National Book Prize for Po- etry and was shortlisted for the 2020 Gdansk European Poet of Freedom Award. Passaport, a long poem printed in the form of an anti-passport, has been published in eleven languages. Adrian Grima is a poet and lec- turer on Maltese literature at the University of Malta, where he al- so coordinates the research pro- ject 'It-Tradizzjoni Orali'. He has presented his works at various conferences and his poetry has appeared in anthologies printed all over Europe. Mario Vella is the singer-song- writer of Maltese band Brikkuni. Their celebrated first album Kun- trabanda (2008) paved the way for a significant revival in Mal- tese-language popular music. Versions of some of the song lyrics had been first published as poems in the anthology Ħbula Sti- rati (2007). The title of the round- table discussion, "Ma rridx ngħix Dubaj, wisq anqas Singapore", is a verse from Brikkuni's song 'Alla lliberani', released in November 2019. Alex Vella Gregory holds a PhD in Music Composition with Ed- inburgh Napier University. He is a composer, pianist and teacher whose works have been performed in many venues both in Malta and abroad, including Edinburgh, Vi- enna, Italy and Washington DC. He is also the artistic director and a founding member of the Cap- pella Sanctae Catharinae choir. Velle Gregory is also known for his satirical cabaret act performed by the irreverent alter-ego Ċikku l-Poplu. Noah Fabri is an experimen- tal folk musician and member of Moviment Graffitti. He has re- leased three albums on his Band- camp page over the past two years. For further updates follow the Campus Book Festival page on Facebook. The 2020 Campus Book Festival is being held on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 between 9 am–4 pm, and Friday 27 March from 9am till late in the afternoon. APPLICATIONS for the 2020 edition of National Book Prize and for the Terra- maxka Prize – the National Book Prize for children and adolescents – are now open. As always, the call for applications is for books published the preceding year (2019 for this year's edition) and are open to all local publications in English or Maltese that fall under one of the accepted categories of both the National Book Prize and for the Terra- maxka Prize. The prizes award the authors of those publications that are judged to have high literary and cultural or ac- ademic merit. An independent adjudication board, appointed specifically and solely for the purpose of adjudicating the Prize, will evaluate the submissions accord- ing to the set of criteria specific to each category. New to this edition of the National Book Prize for adults, the Poetry cate- gory was split into two categories: Po- etry in English and Poetry in Maltese. There is now a total of nine categories for the National Book Prize for adults: Novel, Short Story, Poetry in English, Poetry in Maltese, Drama, Literary Non-Fiction, Translation, General Re- search, and Biographical and Historio- graphic Research. The six categories for the Terramax- ka Prize for children and adolescents are three categories for original works for children and adolescents divided by age group (0–7, 8–12 and 13–16), and another three categories for trans- lated works for children and adoles- cents, again one per age group. The prize value allocated to all cate- gories in the Prize (including the Best Emergent Writer, Lifetime Achieve- ment Award and Poet Laureate, and excluding the Terramaxka catego- ries of translation) is €4,000, while for the translation categories for the Terramaxka Prize, the prize money is €2,000. The Poet Laureate Award will be assigned to the writer who, being the recipient of the National Book Prize for poetry, has previously won any other National Book Prize Award. The prize sum will be paid in four equal instalments on a yearly basis on the condition that during that year the poet writes a substantial amount of poetry to be published as a single collection. A prize may be selected from each and every category, and no more than one prize is to be allocated to each cat- egory. It may happen that no winner is cho- sen for a given category if the required level is not achieved by any of the en- tries in that category, as per the Prize regulations, guidelines and criteria. Submissions are to reach the Na- tional Book Council by not later than Monday, 20 April 2020 at noon, to- gether with a filled-out application form and four copies of the submitted book or books. It is important that the applicant indicates the right category for each submission. Please send the application to the fol- lowing address: National Book Prize 2020, National Book Council, c/o Cen- tral Public Library, Professor Joseph J. Mangion Street, Floriana FRN 1800. Applications open for National Book Prize and Terramaxka Prize