Malta Book Festival: A pint with Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh, the international guest of the 2021 Malta Book Festival, will sit down for an extended interview with writers Wayne Flask, and again with Immanuel Mifsud in an exchange moderated by Mark Vella
25 July 2021, 9:00am
by Matthew Vella
Irvine Welsh is the international guest of the 2021 Malta Book Festival. He’ll be sitting down for an extended interview on his life and works with Wayne Flask, and again with Immanuel Mifsud in an exchange moderated by Mark Vella to discuss the generation-defining influence of the Scottish writer’s works.
Ahead of the Festival, the National Book Council spoke to the moderators and fellow writers who will be appearing on stage with Irvine Welsh at this year’s Book Festival.
The highly anticipated film adaptation of Alex Vella Gera’s National Book Prize winning novel Is-Sriep Reġgħu saru Velenużi (Merlin Publishers, 2012) will hit the big screen on Friday, August 6 at Eden Cinemas. Ahead of its launch in a few weeks we speak to its director and producer Martin Bonnici. The film Is-Sriep Reġgħu saru Velenużi was produced with the support of the National Book Council’s inaugural Film Adaptation Fund.
This is your first feature film after a number of short films – when did you start thinking about making this film and how was the experience of getting it off the ground?
This focus on literary translation and the market for books in translation comes about from the recent publication of a collection of short stories by Maltese w
Merlin Publishers has just published four new sets of flashcards in Maltese in a series of six packs, complementing the first two sets L-Alfabett and Annimali, Insetti u Għasafar. The new packs are entitled Ikel, Ħwejjeġ u Ġugarelli, Ibni s-Sentenzi and Aqtagħli Kurżità.
We all know how tricky it can be to introduce the Maltese language to the very young, especially when – for whatever reason – they are more exposed to English on a daily basis. One of the most hands-on ways is usually flashcards, or leħħiet in Maltese, for a multitude of reasons, but especially because they are so versatile, interactive, hands-on and can easily be turned into game-like activities.
Merlin Publishers is today hosting a live reading of short stories from Trevor Zahra’s latest anthology Sempreviva.
The book is a collection of 37 funny, eerie and heart-warming tales which have flowers as their themes and all of which depict human emotions.
Zahra himself, together with some friends, will be reading excepts from these stories this evening at 6.30pm. One may follow the event live on the Merlin Publishers’ Facebook page. For more information, visit the page https://www.facebook.com/events/449012456278216.
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