The Campus Book Festival 2020 – date announcement and special guests

The National Book Council is announcing the dates and the special guests for this year’s Campus Book Festival. The seventh edition of the Festival will take place between Wednesday 25 and Friday 27 March at the University of Malta Quadrangle, in collaboration with Għaqda tal-Malti – Università and the Department of English Students Association (DESA).

American poet, memoirist and writer of prose Mark Doty will be attending the Campus Book Festival this year. Doty was the first American to win the T.S. Eliot Prize in the UK in 1995, and in 2008 he won the National Book Award bil-ktieb Fire to Fire: new and selected poems (HarperCollins, 2008). He’s the author of several poetry books, amongst which Bethlehem in Broad Daylight (D.R. Godine, 1991), A Swarm, A Flock, A Host: A Compendium of Creatures (Prestel, 2013), and Deep Lane (W.W. Norton, 2015), and memoirs and nonfiction books such as Firebird (HarperCollins, 1999), Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy (Beacon Press, 2000) and Dog Years (HarperCollins, 2007). Doty has often been compared to James Merrill, Walt Whitman and C.P. Cavafy for his elegant, intelligent verse.

Doty will be engaged in three special events at the Festival, one per day. On Wednesday 25 March he will be part of a panel discussing queer literature; on Thursday 26 March he will be participating at a book-club session with University students; and on Friday 27 March Doty will be interviewed on his literary and non-literary output. Later on the day Mark will be one of the readers during an Open-Mic session organised by Inizjamed, which this year round will be themed around literature of protest and will be accompanied by music of protest.

In collaboration with the Department of Translation, Terminology and Interpreting Studies, the Campus Book Festival 2020 will also host an interview with translation theorist and scholar of comparative literature Prof. Susan Bassnett. She will be interviewed by Prof. Clare Vassallo. Author of over 20 books, Prof. Bassnett’s Translation Studies, which first appeared in 1980, has remained in print ever since and has become an important international textbook in this field. Her Comparative Literature (1993) has also become internationally renowned and has been translated into several languages. Her most recent books are Political Discourse, Media and Translation (2010), co-edited with Cristina Schaeffner, and Reflections on Translation (2011). Beside her academic research, and writing for several national newspapers, Susan Bassnett also writes poetry. 

The purpose of the Campus Book Festival is to promote literature across the board while, at the same time, giving publishers and book distributors a space in which they can sell and promote their publications with a mature audience, such as post-secondary and tertiary students. A vast programme of activities will be put up during the festival, ranging from workshops and films related to literature, to readings and interviews with authors, and illustrators – as well as language discussions, guided tours around the University Library, live music and a number of collaborations with student organisations.

The publishers participating at this year’s Campus Book Festival are BDL, Merlin Publishers, Midsea Books/Klabb Kotba Maltin, Horizons, EDE Books, SKS, Faraxa Publishing, Pjattaforma and Infinity Books who will have their books up for sale. Dates and time are as follows: Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 from 9 am to 4 pm, and Friday 27 March from 9 am to 8 pm. The Festival is open to everyone and is free of charge.

The programme of activities will be out soon. Follow the NBC’s website and Campus Book Festival Facebook page for the latest updates.

Fell free to write to get in touch with Matthew Borg (matthew.borg@ktieb.org.mt) from the NBC, Romario Sciberras (ghaqdatalmalti@gmail.com) from Għaqda tal-Malti – Università, and Matthew Cilia (desa.uom@gmail.com) from DESA.

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