Readers of all ages are invited to explore the power of storytelling next month at the 2025 Malta Book Festival in Ta Qali (November 5 to 9).
With a theme of ‘Writing Anew’ to capture a spirit of change and transformation, the festival will present literature as a transformative force: “life is shaped into words, stories are reimagined across forms, and every genre opens a door to discovery.”
The rich programme includes many types of book events, from book signings and masterclasses to exhibitions, children’s theatre and even body art courtesy of the Malta Community of Illustrators.
Samantha Harvey, winner of the 2024 Book Prize
The star of the line-up is unquestionably English author Samantha Harvey, who is talking at the festival on November 8.
Her mesmerising novel Orbital won the 2024 Booker prize. Set in a space station orbiting the earth, it’s gentle and light yet rich and deep, static yet sweeping.
Less than 140 pages long, this experiential book is packed with luscious description: it’s an immersive populated atlas of the world through an ever-shifting long-distance lens with an incredible sense of place from beyond our atmosphere.
As the reader watches the ceaseless turning of the earth and the terrain below, Harvey’s characters muse on its glories from every angle as if our planet were a small animal or natural history specimen, a mass of contradictions in perfect harmony.
While the drama is limited – unsurprisingly in 24 hours within a sealed unit – the book resonates with global issues of climate change and family connections.
Other special guests
Other special guests include US husband and wife author-editor duo, Jeff and Ann VanderMeer. Jeff, whom you can join for a conversation event on November 8, writes disquieting boundary-defying science/fantasy fiction rooted in the ‘new weird’ genre. Jeff will also be running one of the festival masterclasses, on writing imaginative fiction, while in another, Ann advises on ‘How to Work with Professional Editors’.
Several authors who have successfully made it through the writing process will see their books launched as part of the programme. These include Kurżità Perikoluża by Krystle Abela, Tberfil and the Art of Maltese Vehicular Decoration in the 20th Century by Steve Scicluna, which explores the history of this unique art form − its lettering, pinstriping and ornamentation − and the people behind it; and Qarn (A Horn) by multidisicplinary artist Romeo Roxman Gatt, which relates the author’s return to Malta from London to his language and his family − described as “a transition memoir, a protest essay, a poetic manifesto, an utopian strategy and a love letter”.
Also brand new in November, Es Sidr, by Omar NShea, tells how he discovered a file full of letters after his mother’s death. With these letters sent from Libya, N’Shea pieces together his mother’s story and in doing so, starts to understand his family’s behaviour and the meaning behind some of his memories, addressing the silences in our collective historical memory of events in our neighbouring state in the 1970s.
Both Qarn and Es Sidr are new from Aphroconfuso, an author-led, not-for-profit literary journal and publishing house in the Maltese language. Aphroconfuso will also be launching their second annual anthology, which brings together much of the work published in the journal’s second year, and running a series of eight editor-writer conversations throughout the festival.
Festival visitors will also have the chance to meet Adrian Buckle, author of the 2025 dark fantasy novel Aodhán (publisher), a tale of gods, shadows and forbidden power, at a book-signing event.
Shows for children
There’s great local literature as theatre too, for children, curated by acclaimed author and theatre-maker Simone Spiteri. These are based on Maltese books for children and young adults that have previously won the Terramaxka Prize in the Malta’s national book awards.
Two of the four shows are new for this year: Il-Kreatura tal-Bir written by Miguel Formosa, based on the children’s novel about an ancient monster in a well by Simon Bartolo, and Madam Ortensja Paskwalina de Rohan, an imaginative story of a seamstress and her surprising carnival costumes adapted for stage by author Clare Azzopardi and directed by Jacob Piccinino.
More events
Bringing more of the world’s best writing to Malta, Iris Wolff’s celebrated novel Lichtungen – which translates to ‘Clearings’ in English − which was shortlisted for the German Book Prize in 2024 − has been translated into Maltese, offering an insight into friendship, migration, loss and belonging through the lives of two in Romania, both as a communism state in the 1960s and after the fall of the Iron Curtain in the hands of a dictator. Opening in the present day, the story unfolds in reverse.
The associated event will feature readings in German by Iris Wolff and in Maltese by the novel’s translator Alfred Scalpello, as well as a conversation in English, moderated by Katrin Dautel from the Department of German, University of Malta.
This year’s packed and varied programme also includes the chance to see a historical manuscript from the Maltese Church Archives and an exhibition of sketchbooks by various illustrators who, through their drawings and visual experiments, converse with the work of contemporary Maltese poets, and a workshop on ‘Maltese Folktales: From Story to Character Design’ with author-illustrator Matt Stroud.
To see the full programme visit ktieb.org.mt/maltabookfestival.
