Adania Shibli (Palestina, 1974) kitbet rumanzi, drammi, novelli u esejs narrattivi. Rebħet il-Qattan Young Writer’s Award – Palestine darbtejn: darba fl-2001 bir-rumanz tagħha Masaas (Al-Adab, 2002; tradott bħala Touch, Clockroot, 2009) u darb’oħra fl-2003 b’Kulluna Ba’id bethat al Miqdar aan el-Hub (Al-Adab, 2002; tradott bħala We Are All Equally Far from Love, Clockroot, 2012). L-iktar rumanz reċenti tagħha Tafsil Thanawi (Al-Adab, 2017, tradott bħala  Minor Detail, Fitzcarraldo Edition/UK, u New Directions/USA, 2020) kien fil-lista qasira għall-Premju Nazzjonali tal-Ktieb fl-2020 u fl-2021 kien nominat għall-International Booker Prize. Shibli tieħu sehem fir-riċerka akkademika u ilha mill-2012 tgħallem part-time fl-Università ta’ Birzeit fil-Palestina. Fil-ħarifa tal-2021 kienet Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature fl-Università ta’ Bern fl-Iżvizzera. Shibli hija bħalissa kittieba residenti tal-PWG Stiftung and the Literaturhaus f’Zürich.

Ritratt ta’ Hartwig Klappert.

Joelle Taylor hija l-awtriċi ta’ erba’ ġabriet tal-poeżija. L-iktar waħda reċenti, C+NTO & Othered Poems rebħet it-T.S. Eliot Prize fl-2021 u l-Polari Book Prize għal kittieba LGBT fl-2022. Bħalissa C+UNTO qiegħed jiġi addattat għat-teatru bil-ħsieb li l-produzzjoni ddur diversi lokalitajiet. Joelle hija ko-kuratur u preżentatriċi ta’ Out-Spoken Live fis-Southbank Centre u tippreżenta xogħolha kemm lokalment u kemm barra minn pajjiżha, mill-Awstralja sal-Brażil. Hija wkoll Poetry Fellow tal-Università ta’ East Anglia u l-kuratur tal-Koestler Awards 2023. Kienet fuq il-ġurija ta’ diversi premji letterarji, inkluż il-Jerwood Fellowship, il-Forward Prize u l-Ondaatje Prize. Ir-rumanz tagħha magħmul minn stejjer interkonnessi, The Night Alphabet, se jiġi ppubblikat minn Riverrun fir-rebbiegħa tal-2024. Hija Fellow tar-Royal Society of Literature u is-Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year tal-2022. L-iktar xogħol reċenti tagħha fir-reċtar hija parti fi Blue ta’ Derek Jarman, dirett minn Neil Bartlett u li fih ħadu sehem ukoll Russell Tovey, Jay Bernard u Travis Alabanza. Blue huwa eżawrit iżda hemm aktar dati ppjanati għal quddiem.

Ritratt ta’ Roman Manfredi.

Maria Grech Ganado (1943), ippublikat disa’ ġabriet ta’ poeżiji bil-Malti jew bl-Ingliż, li erbgħa minnhom rebħu l-Premju Nazzjonali. Ittraduċiet kittieba Maltin għall-Ingliż. Fl-2005 stiednet għall-ewwel darba f’Malta lil-LAF biex ma’ Inizjamed jorganizzaw Symposium f’Malta. Ħadet sehem fl-edizzjonijiet tal-Festival Mediterranju tal-Letteratura ta’ Malta tal-2006, 2007 u 2013. Ittraduċiet għall-Malti xogħol ta’ Valda Melgalve (Latvja) fil-2006. Bil-ġabra tagħha Framed (2018, Merlin Publishers) rebħet l-ewwel Premju Malti tal-Poeta Lawreata. L-aħħar ġabra ta’ poeżiji tagħha hi The Bell (2023, Kotba Calleja).

Ritratt ta’ Kenneth Scicluna.

Tanja Bakić għandha PhD fil-letteratura Ingliża mill-Università ta’ Montenegro u għamlet żmien riċerkatriċi viżitatura f’Harvard.

Bakić hija poeta, traduttriċi u kompożitriċi tal-mużika. Kitbet ħames ġabriet ta’ poeżija li ntlaqgħu tajjeb ħafna mill-kritika. L-ewwel waħda ippubblikatha meta kellha biss ħmistax-il sena mentri l-aħħar ġabra, Intertext, ħarġet fl-2020. Il-poeżiji tagħha ittraduċewhom fi ħmistax-il lingwa differenti u ġew ippreżentati waqt festivals kif ukoll ippubblikati f’magażins internazzjonali u antoloġiji fl-Ingilterra, l-Amerka, l-Awstralja, il-Ġappun, l-Indja, Dubaj, Franza, il-Ġermanja, l-Awstrija u l-Greċja.

Tanja Bakić ingħatat diversi fellowships, fosthom is-Central European Initiative Fellowship for the Writers for the Year 2016 (Vilenica Festival, Slovenja). Ippreżentat artiklu akkademiku f’Tate Britain bl-isem ta’ William Blake in Former Yugoslavia li ġie inkluż f’ġabra ta’ kitbiet akkademiċi maħruġa minn Bloomsbury fl-2019.

Ritratt ta’ D. Vojinovic.

Tobi Bello hija artista multidixxiplinarja Niġerjana/Irlandiża. L-arti viżiva u l-mużika tagħha jinsġu mill-ġdid in-narrattivi diasporiċi permezz tal-interazzjoni bejn l-emozzjonijiet umani u l-art, filwaqt li jirrikonċiljaw l-impatt bijopsikosoċjali tal-assimilazzjoni.

Ġagħel twieldet Malta u studjat iż-żfin kontemporanju fi Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance f’Londra, fejn iggradwat fl-Ewwel Klassi. Kompliet it-taħriġ tagħha ma’ Elephant in the Black Box Company f’Madrid bħala apprendista, fejn ħadmet ma’ diversi mistednin speċjali.

Meta saret iktar konxja ta’ kemm il-ġisem għandu potenzjal komunikattiv, Ġagħel bdiet tinteressa ruħha iktar dwar l-espressjoni politika tal-ġisem fi spazji u kuntesti differenti, imnebbħa mill-kundizzjoni umana u realtajiet soċjali rikorrenti. Temmen ħafna bil-kollaborazzjoni bejn spazji u dixxiplini differenti, kif ukoll fl-inklużjoni ta’ spettru usa’ tal-komunità.

Dan l-aħħar esegwixxiet xogħlijiet ta’ Ido Giron u Justin Roy Barker waqt il-Malta International Arts Festival 2023.

Ruqaya Izzidien hija kittieba Iraqija-Welsh. Fl-2018, l-ewwel rumanz tagħha, The Watermelon Boys, rebaħ il-Betty Trask Award għal awturi debuttanti ta’ taħt il-35 sena. Kienet kittieba residenti tal-Fiera tal-Ktieb ta’ Londra f’Sharjah u kkontribwiet f’Just So You Know (2020), ġabra ta’ esejs minn kittieba Welsh. In-novella tagħha ‘Tattletale’ kienet ikkommissjonata minn BBC Radio 4.

Bħala ġurnalista, xogħolha deher fin-New York Times, Al Jazeera, New Statesman, The New Arab, The National u l-BBC. Għandha blog jismu ‘Muslim Impossible’ fejn fih Izzidien tikkummenta dwar rappreżentazzjonijiet inkorretti tal-Għarab u l-Musulmani fuq it-televixin, fiċ-ċinema u fil-letteratura.

Ritratt ta’ Mosa’ab Elshamy.

Adania Shibli (Palestine, 1974) has written novels, plays, short stories and narrative essays. She has twice been awarded with the Qattan Young Writer’s Award-Palestine in 2001 on her novel Masaas (Al-Adab, 2002; translated as Touch, Clockroot, 2009), and in 2003 on her novel Kulluna Ba’id bethat al Miqdar aan el-Hub (Al-Adab, 2002; translated as We Are All Equally Far from Love, Clockroot, 2012). Her latest is the novel Tafsil Thanawi (Al-Adab, 2017, translated as Minor Detail, Fitzcarraldo Edition/UK, and New Directions/USA, 2020), which was shortlisted for the National Book Award in 2020, and in 2021 it was nominated for the International Booker Prize. Shibli is also engaged in academic research and since 2012 she has been teaching part time at Birzeit University, Palestine. In the fall of 2021, she was a Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature, University of Bern, Switzerland. Shibli is currently the writer-in-residence of the PWG Stiftung and the Literaturhaus in Zürich.

Photo by Hartwig Klappert.

Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry. Her most recent collection C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 T.S. Eliot Prize, and the 2022 Polari Book Prize for LGBT authors. C+NTO is currently being adapted for theatre with a view to touring. She is a cocurator and host of Out-Spoken Live at the Southbank Centre, and tours her work nationally and internationally in a diverse range of venues, from Australia to Brazil. She is also a Poetry Fellow of University of East Anglia and the curator of the Koestler Awards 2023. She has judged several poetry and literary prizes including Jerwood Fellowship, the Forward Prize, and the Ondaatje Prize. Her novel of interconnecting stories The Night Alphabet will be published by Riverrun in Spring of 2024. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year. Her most recent acting role was in Blue by Derek Jarman, which was directed by Neil Bartlett and featured Russell Tovey, Jay Bernard, and Travis Alabanza. Blue sold out its run across the UK and more dates are expected for the future.

Photo by Roman Manfredi.

Maria Grech Ganado (1943 in Malta) read English at the Universities of Malta and Cambridge (Girton College) and was a University Lecturer (English Department) till she retired. She writes in both Maltese and English and her poetry has been translated into 15 languages, appearing in diverse literary publications. She has also translated contemporary Maltese texts into English. Two of her four collections of Maltese poetry have won the National Book Prize, as have two of her four English ones. She won Malta’s first Poet Laureate award in 2020. Invited to many foreign events, she co-organised (with Literature Across Frontiers and Inizjamed) an international seminar in Malta in 2005. Maria received the State’s Medal for Service to the Republic in 2000, the National Book Council award for valuable contribution to Literature in 2015 and her hometown’s (Floriana) Shield of Honour in 2017. In 2023, she was awarded an Honoris Causa Doctorate of Literature by the University of Malta. Maria has 3 children and 3 grandchildren. Her latest poetry collection is The Bell (2023, Kotba Calleja).

Photo by Kenneth Scicluna.

Tanja Bakić holds a PhD in British literature from the University of Montenegro. She is a published poet, translator and music writer. She was a visiting researcher at Harvard. She is the author of five highly-praised poetry collections, her debut being published when she was only 15, and the last one, Intertext in 2020. Her poems have been translated into fifteen foreign languages, presented at festivals abroad, published in international magazines and anthologies (produced in the UK, USA, Australia, Japan, India, Dubai, France, Germany, Austria, Greece, etc.) and she has been awarded fellowships several times, one of these being the Central European Initiative Fellowship for the Writers for the year 2016 (Vilenica festival Slovenia). The paper she presented at the Tate Britain in London entitled William Blake in the Former Yugoslavia came out in an edited collection of papers published by Bloomsbury in 2019.

Photo by D. Vojinovic.

Tobi Bello is an Nigerian/Irish multidisciplinary artist whose visual art and music re-weave the diasporic narratives through the interplay of human emotions and land, while reconciling with the biopsychosocial impacts of assimilation.

Hailing from the tiny island of Malta, Ġagħel studied contemporary dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, graduating with a first class degree. She then furthered her training with Elephant in the Black Box Company in Madrid as an apprentice, working with numerous guest artists. Realising the communicative potential of the body, Ġagħel’s interest lies in the politicality of the body in different spaces and contexts, drawing upon the human condition and recurring social realities. She values collaboration across disciplines and spaces, in a constant search to reach different parts of the broader community.

She has recently performed works by Ido Gidron and Justin Roy Barker in the Malta International Arts Festival 2023.

Ruqaya Izzidien is an Iraqi-Welsh writer. Her debut novel, The Watermelon Boys received a Betty Trask Award in 2018 for first-time novelists under 35. She served as the London Book Fair’s writer-in-residence in Sharjah, and contributed to Just So You Know (2020), a collection of essays from Welsh writers. Her short story, Tattletale was commissioned by BBC Radio 4. 

As a journalist, her work has appeared in the New York Times, Al Jazeera, the New Statesman, The New Arab, The National, and the BBC. She runs the blog, Muslim Impossible, which reviews inaccurate depictions of Arabs and Muslims in television, film and literature.

Photo by Mosa’ab Elshamy.