The Authors and Other Guests of the 2024 Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival
Guest Index
| The Authors | David Aloisio (Malta) | Raymond Antrobus (UK) | Malika Booker (UK/The Caribbean) | Mario Cardona (Malta) | Irene Chias (Italy/Malta) | Josep Pedrals (Catalonia) | Maja Ručević (Croatia) |
| Artistic Encounter | Claudio Beorchia (Artist-in-Residence at Spazju Kreattiv) |
| The Musicians | The Hinge Project |
The Authors
David Aloisio
David Aloisio (1979) is head of department and senior lecturer of Maltese at the University of Malta Junior College, and visiting lecturer at the University of Malta Department of Translation, Terminology and Interpreting Studies. His Master’s dissertation specialised in literary translation. Aloisio holds a PhD in literature, awarded by the University of Malta in 2021. His major research areas encompass Maltese literature, literary theory, literary canonisation and translation practice. He published both original and translated works. Two of his publications have been awarded the Malta National Book Prize.
“Qed tarah dal-kappell,” tbissem in-naffar filwaqt li deher jintilef fi ħsibijietu, “dak, dak libbishuli Basir, il-bidwi bid-daqna u x-xagħar griż innukklat li kien jiġi jaħdem dil-għalqa … Niftakar il-jum li libbishuli. Qatt ma ninsa dak il-jum … għax fih bkejt għall-ewwel darba. Dakinhar stajt nifhem aħjar: fhimt li jien imdawwar bi ħwejjeġ li qatt ma nista’ nifhem. Raġel sew, miskin. Meta jegħja kien jintasab quddiemi … ma kienx jieqaf iredden … da’ Basir ukoll! Niftakru jgħidli: ‘L-art tagħti kemm tagħmel magħha: ġid, hena u fuq kollox is-saħħa.’ Minn kollox u fuq kollox kien jgħidli.
Raymond Antrobus
Raymond Antrobus (1986) was born in London, Hackney to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is the author of the poetry collections, The Perseverance, All The Names Given and Signs, Music. His Accolades include The Ted Hughes Award, The Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, A Sunday Times Young Writer of the year award, as well as a shortlisting for the T.S Eliot Prize, Griffin Prize and Forward Prize. In 2018 he was awarded The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize, (Judged by Ocean Vuong), for his poem Sound Machine. A selection of his poems was added to the UK’s Oxford Cambridge RSA GCSE syllabus in 2022.He has also published two children’s picture books, Can Bears Ski? and Terrible Horses and hosted a number of award winning radio documentaries including ‘Inventions In Sound’ (BBC Radio 4, 2021)
Photo by Chantal Lawrie.
… We’ve been here before,
no such thing as too much laughter
unless you’re my mother without my father,
working weekends while the perseverance
spits him out for a minute.
He gives me 50p to make me disappear.
Malika Booker
Malika Booker (1970) is a British poet of Guyanese and Grenadian Parentage, who lectures at Manchester Metropolitan University, and co-founded Malika’s Poetry Kitchen (a writer’s collective). Her pamphlet Breadfruit, received a Poetry Society recommendation and her collection Pepper Seed was shortlisted for the OCM Bocas prize and the Seamus Heaney Centre 2014 prize. She is published with the Poets Sharon Olds and Warsan Shire in The Penguin Modern Poet Series 3 (2017). Malika Booker is a fellow of Cave Canem and The Complete Works, the inaugural Poet in Residence at The Royal Shakespeare Company, and was awarded the Cholmondeley Award (2019) for outstanding contribution to poetry and elected a Royal Society of Literature Fellow (2022). She is the first woman to win the Forward Prize for Best Single poem twice: “The Little Miracles” (2020) and “Libation” (2023).
Photo by Siro Micheroli.
Since I found mother collapsed on the kitchen
floor, we siblings have become blindfolded mules
harnessed to carts filled with strain, lumbering
through a relentless storm, wanting to make
our mother walk on her own again, …
Mario Cardona
Mario Cardona (1970) has an academic and professional interest in adult education and training, community education and development, co-operatives, VET, and issues related to education and social justice. He has published about cooperatives, about the Italian educator don Lorenzo Milani and about poverty in Malta. Mario Cardona is currently Deputy Principal for Arts and Social Sciences at MCAST. He lectures in History at MCAST and in Education at the University of Malta. He participates in European policy fora related to education, employment and VET. He carries out voluntary work in community-based organisations. Allat tal-Landa is his second poetry book, following up on his first book entitled Fuq kaxxa tal-birra rasha ’l isfel which was shortlisted for the National Book Prize for poetry..
Photo by Charles Calleja.
Jiġi jum li fih ma tlissinx kelma,
fejn il-kliem idur ġo rasek
bħal ċorma żnażan fuq bużbieża,
u tinduna li inti l-kenn tiegħek innifsek
Irene Chias
Irene Chias (1973) spent several years working in journalism in Lyon and Milan, and now lives in Malta. Her debut Sono ateo e ti amo (Elliot, 2010; Laurana, 2022) was followed by Esercizi di sevizia e seduzione (Mondadori, 2013), Premio Mondello 2014 winner, Non cercare l’uomo capra (Laurana, 2016), Fiore d’agave, fiore di scimmia (Laurana, 2020), Rocchesante (Laurana 2023), Premio Carlo Piaggia 2024 winner, Malovento (Zolfo, 2024). Her novels translated to Maltese are Fjura tas-Sabbara, Fjura tax-Xadina (KKM, 2023) and Mur Ġibek…(Horizons, 2022), the latter winning the National Book Prize’s translation category. Three of her short stories were translated to English in the chapbook Lido Esperanto (Ede, 2023).
Photo by Mark Vella.
Se avessi saputo che sarebbe finita così, avrei accettato con più serenità, forse anche con felicità, la mia pressoché totale mancanza di ambizioni – che tanto mi è stata rinfacciata nella vita – e mi sarei concentrata sulle cose belle dell’avere un corpo, anzi dell’essere anche corpo. Avrei camminato più spesso a piedi scalzi; avrei fatto più docce fredde e più bagni bollenti; forse avrei pure fatto yoga. E mi sarei tuffata da scogli altissimi, e avrei nuotato nel mare d’inverno.
Josep Pedrals
Josep Pedrals (1979) was born in Barcelona. He has performed on numerous occasions throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and America, giving readings and performing at many different festivals. He works in poetry education for children and adults, and gives lectures and courses in schools, colleges and universities. He has developed poetry spaces on radio and television and has contributed in the arts and culture sections of various publications. Currently, he is writing articles for El País, contributing to the podcast Tenim paraula and on the radio programme Cadena Ser. Between 2011 and 2013 Pedrals published a sonnet every day in the newspaper Ara . He has coordinated local poetry festivals and cycles across Catalonia and co-directed the international poetry festival, Barcelona Poesia from 2020 to 2023. He has written several theatre plays and worked as a musician. He has been awarded the Lletra d’or prize in 2013, the Time Out Barcelona – Best Artist of the Year 2014 prize, the Homo Fabra prize in 2018, the City of Barcelona prize of Literature also in 2018, the Digital Literature prize Lletra in 2019, the Nollegiu Poetry prize in 2022 and the Critic’s Award Serra d’Or in 2023.
Photo by Sílvia Poch.
Everest is falling, stone by stone
in a striptease of psychosis,
the wastes are thawing, spewing poison,
the plains fold up in creases;
Maja Ručević
Maja Ručević (1983) was born in Zagreb, where she graduated in French language and literature and Croatian language and literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. She works as a translator of French and English languages. In 2016, her debut novel Je suis Jednoruki was published by Algoritam publishing house in Croatia. In 2022, her collection of poems titled Sutra ćemo praviti anđele u padu was published in the Poetry Library of the Croatian Writers’ Association (HDP). She has received several awards for her poetry (Ratkovićeve večeri poezije in 2008 and 2009, Ulaznica in 2022). She has lived in Zagreb, Sarajevo and Belgrade. Currently, she is working on a new novel.
Maja is also the 2023/24 Croatian laureate from the Creative Europe Ulysses’ Shelter 3 project, which is cofinanced by the European Union. Inizjamed’s partner Sandorf supports emerging Croatian writers and poets by choosing one laureate from among the previous Croatian residents of the programme.
in this life they were women nomads
and few could ever guess
what that scattered saudade sang about
how strongly they loved places
that weren’t home, especially people
they never even met
Spazju Kreattiv Artist-in-Residence
Claudio Beorchia
Claudio Beorchia joins Spazju Kreattiv’s artist-in-residence programme, a 4-week immersive experience in Malta that fosters international collaboration and cultural exchange. This residency aligns with Spazju Kreattiv’s mission to enrich the local creative scene, offering Claudio the opportunity to engage in research, development, and community interaction.
Claudio is an interdisciplinary Italian artist who often uses text in his artistic practice. His publications include, in addition to several artist’s books: the photo book “Saintscapes,” ViaIndustriae Publishing, 2019; the poetry collection “Sogni d’oro, Chiaravalle,” ViaIndustriae Publishing, 2019; and the short novel “Neuro di seppia,” Kellermann Editore, 2010.
In Malta, Claudio is working on a project deeply related to the Mediterranean Sea and the ancestral and millennial relationship that humans have with this body of water. The starting point of his research is the names of the boats that cross the Mediterranean. Boats usually have important names, recalling mythological creatures and natural forces, powerful and beautiful female figures, and heroic and brave deeds. A world of names that evokes a sea quite different from today’s sea, understood in a practical and productive way as infrastructure, economic resource, border.
Photo by Guido Valenti.
The Musicians
The Hinge Project
Guitarist and composer Jes Psaila formed The Hinge Project after the success of his solo album and the DUOs project. Since then, the quartet has enthralled audiences with their fusion of jazz, rock, and captivating melodies. Their self-titled album, recorded in 2019, highlighted their unique sound and marked a significant milestone with its launch in 2021. In 2023, they embarked on their latest venture, Causatum, a collection showcasing their evolution and creativity, which debuted at the Valletta Campus Theatre on 6 April 2024. Collaborating on this project are talented musicians Mark Attard on piano and keyboards, Luke Briffa on drums and percussion, and André Micallef on bass.
A taste: Spotify | Bandcamp | YouTube
Photo by André Micallef.
