Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey heads to Malta Book Festival 

Winner of the Booker Prize 2024 for her novel Orbital, British author Samantha Harvey joins Jeff and Ann VanderMeer as a special guest for this year’s edition of the Malta Book Festival – organised by the National Book Council (Malta) and taking place between 5-9 November at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre (MFCC), Ta’ Qali. 

Harvey will be in conversation with author Loranne Vella on Friday 7 November, during a public event that will certainly serve as a highlight of the annual event’s rich programme of activities. 

While the success of Orbital definitively cemented Harvey’s success as one of the leading British novelists of our time, her work has long attracted critical acclaim. 

Her debut novel The Wilderness (2009) was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the Betty Trask Prize, drawing praise for its poignant exploration of memory loss and identity. All Is Song (2012) was widely commended for its philosophical depth and elegant prose, while Dear Thief (2014) was longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and hailed by The New Yorker’s James Woods as “a strange and exhilarating journey, unlike anything I have recently encountered.” In 2018, The Western Wind was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, with critics celebrating its daring medieval setting and inventive narrative structure. Harvey’s non-fiction work, The Shapeless Unease (2020), a memoir of insomnia, was described by author Nathan Filer as “a profound meditation on language and loss and time, and on how we construct ourselves through stories”. Harvey is also a tutor on the MA course in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

“It is an immense privilege to be able to welcome Samantha Harvey as a special guest, particularly when this means that the Festival will now have played host to two Booker Prize winners back-to-back,” National Book Council Executive Chairperson Mark Camilleri said, in reference to Irish author Paul Lynch’s appearance at the Malta Book Festival in 2024. 

“Harvey’s award-winning fiction spans a wide range of human experience and insight, and we are delighted to put her in conversation with Loranne Vella, one of Malta’s most forward-thinking and boundary-pushing novelists for what will surely be a stimulating public event for all,” Camilleri added. 

“The presence of authors like Samantha Harvey and Jeff VanderMeer as well as esteemed fiction editor Ann VanderMeer at the Malta Book Festival contributes to ensuring that the event offers a high-quality experience to all visitors, with Maltese readers and stakeholders gaining access to internationally recognised players in the field at no cost,” Camilleri said.

“This is how we ensure that the Festival remains a fresh, vibrant hub for literature that transcends borders and barriers and is always open to new inspiration – ensuring that we truly live up to the slogan of this year’s edition: Writing Anew,” Camilleri added. 

The Malta Book Festival will be taking place between 5-9 November at the MFCC, Ta’ Qali. Samantha Harvey will be in conversation with Lornane Vella during a public event on Friday, 7 November at 19:00. The event will be followed by a book signing. Attendance is free but registration is required via Submittable.