This year’s Book Festival on Campus takes place at the University of Malta, Tal-Qroqq, on April 4 and 5.

Organised by the National Book Council, the purpose of the festival is to promote literature across the board while, at the same time, giving publishers and book distributors a space in which they can promote their material with a mature audience, such as university students.

The publishers and distributors participating in the festival are Horizons, Faraxa Books, Sensiela Kotba Soċjalisti (SKS), Students Philosophical Society, Ede, Kotba Calleja, and BDL, some of whom will be setting up events of their own.

Excerpts of Smailes’ work will be read and members of the public will be able to address the author directly

Apart from the publishers and book distributors, other participants in the festival have contributed to the programme. Poet Miriam Calleja will lead a workshop on the topic of creative writing, open to all writers of all levels, which will close with a reading of Calleja’s poetry both in English and in Maltese.

Other events of academic interest include Il-Malti u l-Barranin, set up by Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Lsien Malti, where a number of people who studied Maltese as a foreign language will talk about what motivated them to learn Maltese; and X’naqbad Ngħid?, a talk and discussion on linguistic variations in Maltese, which will be led by Michael Spagnol.

This year’s special guest is Caroline Smailes, the renowned author of In Search of Adam, Like Bees to Honey, 99 Reasons Why and The Drowning of Arthur Braxton, which is currently being made into a film.

Smailes will be leading workshops on the subjects of creative writing and interesting aspects of narration. There will also be an activity in which excerpts of Smailes’ work will be read and members of the public will be able to address the author directly.

Hip hop act Marmalja will be performing on the first night of the festival.