All authors on stage for finale

The Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival comes to a close tonight at Fort St Elmo, Valletta, at 8pm. The focus will be on Maltese novelist and short story writer Rita Saliba, French performance poet Samantha Barendson, and the world-famous Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury, who will also be interviewed in English by Norbert Bugeja. Tonight being the last night of the festival, the poets and authors who participated in the previous two evenings’ readings will also regale the audience present with a brief taste of their works. These are: Joe P. Galea, Mark Vella and Abigail Ardelle Zammit from Malta; Ciwanmerd Kulek from Kurdistan/Turkey; Roja Chamankar from Iran; Rodolfo Häsler from Cuba; Abderrahim Sail from Morocco; and Marc Nair from Singapore. Some of the literature read during the festival might require an adult audience. LOML by Gilbert Calleja and Matthew Attard, another short film commissioned by Inizjamed and the Valletta 2018 Foundation, will also premiere during this evening’s activities. It is inspired by Ray Mahoney’s poem Tibqa’ Int and will be introduced by Caldon Mercieca. Live jazz music for the night will be provided by Francesca Galea (vocals) and Kris Spiteri...