Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/204636
35 maltatoday, THIS WEEK SUNDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2013 Book fair returns to Mediterranean Conference Centre under new name MALTA'S annual book fair will be returning to the Malta Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta between November 13 and 17, re-christened as the National Book Festival, "order to mark the inclusive and holistic nature of this prestigious annual event". As per tradition, during this event – organised by the National Book Council – publishers, authors and bookshops will showcase their material, both old and new. New participants to join this year's event are NGOs such as the Organisation for Maltese Language, Poets' Society of Malta, Friends of the National Archives, the Institute of Maltese Journalists and others. The NBC would also like to welcome the French Embassy as one of the new participants. During the Festival, different activities will be held from publishers, authors, artists and the National Book Council itself. This year, the NBC will also be launching a literary journal in order to promote emerging and yet unpublished authors. During weekday mornings, a programme of events aimed at school children will be held by the Education Department and other entities such as the Centre for Literacy of the University of Malta. Other notable events happening at the Book Fair will include #Abozz – Merlin Publisher's 'X Factor' style event, where shortlisted manuscripts and book cover designs will be judged in front of an audience, taking place on November 16. On that same morning, 'Hamelin!' will guide young children on an interactive fairy tale tour of Valletta (starting from the law courts), designed to be 'spooky and fun', the event is being organised in collaboration with Creative Island. A number of discussions will also take place at the venue, including a talk on the art of storytelling and its position in contemporary Maltese society, as well as a timely debate on the need for a proper critical infrastructure for Maltese literature ('Kittieba bla kritici'). Another landmark event will be the launch of a brand new Maltese-language literary journal – 'L' – on November 14, which will "aim to establish a new space for emerging writers and showcase the skills and talents of those writers that still haven't found their niche in the market". The National Book Festival is open to the general public and everybody is welcome to participate in the activities that will be held. Opening hours: 09:00-13:00 and 17:00-21:00 (Wednesday and Thursday); 09:0013:00 and 17:00-22:00 (Friday); 09:00-12:30 and 16:00-22:00 (Saturday) and 09:00-20:00 (Sunday). For more information search for 'National Book Festival' on Facebook Europeana at the National Book Fest EUROPEANA, Europe's digital museum, library, gallery and archive, together with its Maltese partner, AcrossLimits, invites the people of Malta to The National Book Festival between November 12-16. Europeana is appealing to the public to help to create a giant canvas depicting the image from Europeana.eu that they voted as representing Malta's European cultural heritage. Europeana will also showcase a new eBook 'Europeana: Stories from Malta' written by form 1 and 2 students from across the is- Download the MaltaToday App now land. Each story describes a piece of Maltese cultural heritage that the students found on Europeana.eu and that they think represents them as Maltese-European citizens. The image and eBook are the results from two national competitions run on both the 'Malta in Europe – Europeana' Facebook page and in schools as part of a nationwide campaign to introduce Malta to Europeana.eu and to Europe's cultural treasures. The winning image, an ancient map of Malta, showing where St Paul was shipwrecked will be recreated on 3m x 2m canvas by members of the public visiting the Europeana stand during Book Festival. The finished item will be displayed in December at St James Cavalier. The eBook will contain stories from 10 children and the overall winning contribution will be chosen by Malta actor Gowdin Scerri. At the Book Fest the public can discover all of the stories at the Europeana stand by us- YOUR FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY www.maltatoday.com.mt ing their smartphones with the stands special interactive panels. Speaking about the campaign, the Executive Director of Europeana, Jill Cousins said: "The winning entries from Europeana's competitions show the pride and enthusiasm that people of all ages in Malta have for their cultural heritage. I'm delighted that they have been able to explore and share that online through Europeana. We want everyone to join in the next step of recreating the winning image and discovering the children's stories at the National Book Fest." By visiting Europeana.eu on your PC, tablet or mobile you can find more than 29 million items from 2,300 leading galleries, libraries, archives and museums. Books and manuscripts, photos and paintings, television and film, sculpture and crafts, diaries and maps, sheet music and recordings can all be discovered. The Europeana website and the 'Malta in Europe – Europeana' Facebook page are accessible at www.europeana.eu and www. facebook.com/EuropeanaMalta, respectively. You are also invited to follow Europeana on Twitter@ europeanaeu and #AllezCulture New short story collection by Victor Fenech launched TWO years after his novel Ix-Xitwa ta' wara s-Sjuf, his first major prose work, the poet Victor Fenech has now published a collection of short stories entitled Rakkonti Inkontri, published by Horizons. Of the thirteen stories, the three under Rakkonti ('Tales') include the lead story about an old house in Birgu and the calamitous events of its various tenants through four centuries of our turbulent history. The others revolve around one man's obstinate stand against the establishment to defend a tree that had mattered so much to him and his family; and, the first of its genre in Maltese literature, a bullring story as seen through a boy-bull-matador perspective. The ten shorter stories, all under two thousand words, in Inkontri ('Encounters') revolve around an assortment of characters and themes such as the problem of loneliness, faith and religion, art, travel, love, politics, erotica, and of course the environment – with that underlay of search and protest which has always underpinned Fenech's stance through forty years of writing poetry. As such the stories in Rakkonti Inkontri throw up not only a rich mix of characters but also evoke a social and consciental attitude to life in general. They touch variably on the great existential mystery and on some of the idiosyncracies peculiar to our island home.