Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/712521
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 7 AUGUST 2016 39 This Week Increased international presence at the Malta Book Festival 2016 A conference on the intersection between literature and totalitarianism, as well as a focus on book-binding will be among the unique features of this year's edition THE National Book Council has an- nounced that preparations for the 2016 Malta Book Festival are under- way, with events and other features of the former Book Fair slotting into place. The event will take place at the Mediterranean Conference Cen- tre in Valletta from November 9 to 13, and will be open to the public mornings and evenings, including all day on both Saturday and Sun- day. There, visitors can expect to find numerous stands representing both local and foreign publishers, bookshops, distributors and NGOs. Many of these participants have pre- pared events with literary themes, including presentations of new pub- lications and their authors, dramatic performances and discussions. As is now customary, the festival will also feature several events and activities of a cultural and educa- tional nature which have been pre- pared for both adults and children by the National Book Council. Among these will be a conference on Litera- ture and Totalitarianism – offering the adult public the chance to en- gage with four contemporary writers who will be among this year's special guests: Alek Popov, the renowned Bulgarian satirical writer, the Brit- ish author and academic Patrick McGuinness, the Egyptian novelist Basma Abdel Aziz and the French author Gilbert Sinoué. For the second consecutive time we will dedicate an event to honour last year's winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, the poet- ess Maria Grech Ganado. This is a unique opportunity for members of the public to meet the poetess in person, and also to listen to her po- etry being recited by professional readers. Grech Ganado, who made history when she became the first woman to be appointed full time lecturer at Malta University, is a bilingual po- etess and has published four collec- tions of poems in Maltese, the latest being 'Taħt il-Kpiepel t'Għajnejja' (2014.) Her 'Jum San Valentin' is ar- guably one of the best known (and best loved) poems in Maltese. Friday's evening events will be ded- icated almost entirely to Poetry and to this end the NBC will be organis- ing a second event in collaboration with the Maltese Poets Association, where apart from selected readings, the winners of the Mons. Amante Buontempo Poetry Contest 2016 will be announced. This year the festival will also fea- ture a one-day conference on the theme of literacy and publication, entitled Books and Literacy: yester- day, today and tomorrow. The prod- uct of a cooperative effort by the National Book Council and the De- partment of Library Information and Archive Science at Malta University, the conference will focus on books and literacy as functioning correlates in the history of publishing right up to the modern technological era. Naturally enough, it will zoom into the modern era to see how the ex- tension of the term 'literacy' – to in- clude digital, visual and cyber litera- cies – can coexist with what is now percieved as 'traditional literacy.' There will be contributions by both British and Maltese speakers. As usual, the festival will also in- clude a thematic exhibition, to be housed within the Perello Suite of the Mediterranean Conference Cen- tre, this year on the subject of book- binding. The public should expect an informative and well-presented display of various handmade books by local craftsmen, discussions and workshops on the making of a codex. Another event – or set of events – of equal importance is reserved for students on weekday mornings, that is on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and involves activities such as dramatic performances based on the winning titles of this year's Terramaxka Book Prize and a con- test where students will be asked to fashion out costumes from recycled books and magazines. In addition, there will be have actors dressed up as well-known literary figures who will interact with the young visi- tors as they guide them through the stands and different features of the festival. A €3 voucher will be pre- sented to every student to encourage them to buy a book for themselves. The vouchers are nontransferable and must be redeemed on the same day they are handed out. Saturday evening closes off with a highlight event, the short film pre- miere in Temi Zammit Hall at MCC. This year's winner of the NBC PBS Short Film Contest is Ryan Gatt who will be adapting Walid Nabhan's short story 'Il-Kompliċi' from the collection of short stories 'lura d-dar u ġrajjiet oħra li ma ġrawx' (Klabb Kotba Maltin, 2009) and the event, which is open to all free of charge, will present the audience with the opportunity to meet the young film director, the award winning author and others in a discussion about lit- erary adaptation into film. Alek Popov By event organisers, for event organisers: Evently WITH so many things to take care of when organising a live event, wouldn't it would be great if you could trust someone to help you with some of the logistics? Enter Evently.com.mt – a secure ticket and promotion platform, made by event organisers for event organisers. Through Evently.com. mt you will be able to easily and securely sell online tickets and pro- mote your events using a tried and tested system. The process is so simple that you can get up and run- ning within minutes, a key aspect to the platform, and even more than that, it flows smoothly, seam- lessly and efficiently, giving more time and space for you to focus on your event, as co-founder Ben Vin- centi explains. "Although Evently is a fresh brand on the market, the team, from the developers upwards, have all worked in this industry. While working in this industry they all separately realized a market op- portunity, namely, the need for a ticketing platform that could use a personal touch. Evently is more than a platform; we aim to offer unparalleled support to you and your customers as well as help you promote your event and sell tickets faster," he explains. While Evently may be a ticketing platform, Ben and the Evently team envision the site to offer much more in terms of advanced support and promotion than a normal tick- eting site might offer. "The underlying technology has been tried, tested and proven to work beautifully. This is because the team behind Evently is a group of seasoned software engineers, digital marketers and designers who have successfully developed other ecommerce platforms for clients. But it's more than that. Instead of the process just being transactional, Evently will add a personal touch to every step of the process. We are not happy ourselves unless your event is a re- sounding success." "With Evently, you're not just an- other number in the database. You are a business partner." From the people that brought you Trackage Scheme, Malta's alterna- tive music platform, the Evently team has taken all the best ele- ments from the Trackage Scheme's musical world and adapted it for all types of events – with a lot of additions that event organisers will realise are so important. "To event organisers we want to say, we understand what you go through each event and we want to be of service and assist you in whatever you need, whether you want to handle your ticket sales easily, access a strong consumer base to promote your event to, or just get some friendly advice from someone with experience, look no further than Evently.com.mt," Vin- centi added. The festival will also feature several events and activities of a cultural and educational nature prepared by the National Book Council