Thursday 11 Sept

Claudia Gauci

Suzan Sahori
Christos Chryssopoulos
Film: Ħalib ix-Xitan (Hell's Despite)
 

Friday 12 Sept

Caldon Mercieca
Polona Glavan
Simone Inguanez
Aðalsteinn Ásberg Sigurðsson
 

Saturday 13 Sept

Christos Chryssopoulos (1968) is a novelist, essayist and translator. He was born in Athens and studied Economics in Athens, and Psychology and Social Sciences in the UK. He is among the most prolific young prose writers on the Greek literary scene. He has authored four novels, most recently Imaginary Museum (2005); a volume of essays (The Language Box, 2006), a collection of short stories (Napolean Delastos’ Recipes, 1997), and a novella (The Parthenon Bomber, 1996). Since 1999 he has collaborated with artist Diane Neumaier on several art projects. Their artists’ book, The Black Dress, was published in the USA by RCIPP in 2002 and their show Encounters was held at the Reykjavik Museum of Art in 2003.

Christos has been featured in many anthologies of contemporary Greek fiction and writes regularly on literary theory for the journal Diavazo. He translates from English and also writes criticism for Athenian newspapers and magazines. He  has won a number of grants and has been invited to writers’ centres in Sweden, the Czech Republic, Russia, Scotland, the USA and Iceland.

His work is available in five languages. His website is here.
 

Hassan El Ouazzani (1970) is one of Morocco’s most important young poets. He belongs to the generation of poets who in the 1990s made the prose-poem leap into prominence in Moroccan poetry. This generation, which also includes poets such as Jalal El Hakmaoui, Mahmoud Abdelghani, Abdelilah Salhi and Yassin Adnan, has effected a postmodern paradigm shift in the poetry scene in Morocco.

Hassan El Ouazzani’s poems draw considerably on mythology, but in a postmodern spirit, blending mythical allusions with everyday experience. His poetry also draws on surrealist imagery, used deliberately to deflate the Romantic and Modernist notion of the poet-hero so dear to previous generations. Moreover, what makes El Ouazzani’s poetry so enjoyable is to a great extent its aura of intimacy and the simplicity of its language, which the poet achieves without sacrificing depth and meaning. Of him German poet Tobias Burghardt wrote: “The poet, whose presence was noted at the Medellin Poetry Festival in Colombia, uses paradox to create a coherent poetic system.” His first collection of poems, Hudnatun ma (A Truce), published in 1997 by the Union of Moroccan Writers, exemplifies all these characteristics.

Formerly the secretary-general of the Moroccan House of Poetry, Hassan El Ouazzani has also published La production littéraire marocaine 1929-1999: Bio-bibliographie et étude socio-bibliométrique (Rabat: Union of Moroccan Writers, 2002). His poems have been translated and published in diverse international poetry magazines such as Prometeo (Colombia), Kalathos (Venezuela), Ila (Germany), and Les soirs rouges (Canada). El Ouazzani has participated in various international festivals of poetry, such as Medellin (Colombia), Trois-Rivières (Canada), Lodève (France), Maillorca (Spain), Istanbul (Turkey), and London (United Kingdom). His poems have also appeared in Spanish Poemas para la vida, translated from the Arabic by Jimena Londono (Mexico: collectivo Zone Alta, 2001). In French he has published Répertoire des écrivains marocains (Rabat: Union of Moroccan Writers, 1993). Read poems by and articles about Hassan El Ouazzani here.

Dr. El Ouzzani finished his doctorate in literature in July 2008.

(Slightly adapted from text by Norddine Zouitni)

Claudia Gauci (1976) writes poetry in Maltese. She studied French and Maltese at the University of Malta, graduating in 1997, and has worked as a teacher of French and as a translator. She joined Inizjamed in 2002 and has participated in workshops with local and foreign writers.

Her poetry has been published in F'Kull Belt hemm Kantuniera (Every City has a Corner, Inizjamed, 2003), Ktieb għall-Hruq (A Book to be Burnt, Inizjamed, 2005) and The Drunken Boat. She has participated in various projects, amongst them Borders (2003), the Biennial Un Anno di Passione (Naples, 2005) and Steps (2006).

Read some of her poetry translated into English by Maria Grech Ganado here.

Polona Glavan (1974) is a novelist, short story writer and translator from English. She is renowned as a keen traveller; and it was her travel experiences that first inspired her to write. Her debut novel Noč v Evropi, (A Night in Europe) describes one of her many journeys, an Inter-Rail trip through Europe.

A graduate of comparative literature and English, Polona Glavan has been present on the Slovenian literary scene for over a decade. For most of the 1990s her stories were published in literary magazines; she appeared in the anthology of short stories (Čas kratke zgodbe, Beletrina 1999) and won the Student Short Story Award in 1997. Noč v Evropi (A Night in Europe) was shortlisted for the Kresnik Award for the best Slovenian novel of the year, while her short story collection Gverilci (Guerillas, 2004) won the Zlata ptica Award for outstanding achievements of young artists. Her stories have been translated into more than ten languages while Noč v Evropi was published in Czech translation in 2007.

Noč v Evropi continues the tradition of younger fiction authors, tackling the biggest fiction challenge – a novel – already in the first attempt. The general structure of the text is already expressed by the title. The vision of Jim Jarmusch from the film The Night on Earth is shifted in Polona’s version from taxies to a night express train Paris - Amsterdam, in a time span of ten hours. Characters from throughout the world finding themselves on a train are brought together by Interrail tickets in their pockets, a bottle of water within the reach, the youth no longer naive, the adulthood not yet definite, the summer whose no man’s time on no man’s land offers an opportunity to summarize old loves and discover new ones, and of course the chaos of personal luggage in character’s heads where Polona delves as silence falls in the compartments.

By contrast, her second book, a collection of stories titled Gverilci focuses on everyday and seemingly commonplace themes such as family, children, young couples, city life; but hidden under this surface are acts of violence, sexual abuse, suicide and mental illness. With Gverilci, the author has entered the ranks of socially engaged writers, taking leave of minimalism and tackling a kind of writing that is both socially critical and warmly humorous.

Polona Glavan is currently working on her new short story collection as well as on her second novel.

Simone Inguanez (1971) graduated in law, criminology and youth studies and undertook training in Gestalt psychotherapy and family mediation. She now lives in Kalkara and works mainly as a reviser in the field of law with a leading translation firm based in Malta. Simone Inguanez published her first collection of poetry ftit mara ftit tifla in 2005 (Klabb Kotba Maltin). This was soon after the publication of fire, water, earth and i, a short selection of her works translated into English (Inizjamed, Midsea Boooks). A number of her works have also appeared in anthologies, journals and similar publications, while others were set to music.

Simone Inguanez was literary editor of the Maltese weekly newspaper lL-GENS illum for a number of years, a task she fulfilled on behalf of the Mediterranean cultural organisation Inizjamed.

In 2004 Inguanez participated in the seventh edition of the poetry festival Voix de la Méditerranée held annually in Lodève. In 2005 she read at the XII BJCEM biennale dei giovani artisti dell’europa e del mediterraneo – Un anno di passione held in Naples (Italy) and in 2007 she was Malta’s writer-in-residence for the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. In 2008 she participated in a literary translation workshop in Riga (Latvia) and read in Budapest (Hungary). In 2008 she will be reading once again in Lecce, after having read there in 2007 during the annual Recital dei Poeti del Mediterraneo.

Inguanez's work has been described as highly idiosyncratic, especially in her use of rhythm and tone. Her early work is mainly an exploration of her intense inner self, minutely analysing its interaction with what or whom she experiences. Her new work seems to be directed outward, focusing more on what she encounters and finding patterns in it which often border on the metaphysical. In both cases, her syntax surprises with its experimental musicality and her tone can just as suddenly switch pitch. The condensation achieved through this approach to words is skilfully controlled by a harmonious blending which is both pleasing and delightful.

Caldon Mercieca (1976) is co-founder of awl, a small independent publishing house specialising in contemporary Maltese poetry, with which he has released two poetry publications, Moghlint (2002) and Majorkini (2003). During the past four years, his writing-cycles have become increasingly based on visual images and photography taken from catalogues of art exhibitions, fashion design and home decoration.

He is active in theatre theory research in the context of The Icarus Performance Project Malta (www.icarusproject.info), and has contributed to workshops and conferences of the Summer University of the Performing Arts and to the Icarus Project publications, the latest being on silence and vocalisation in performance in Lamentations of Cain: Dramaturgy of a Performance Process (2006). His academic interest and research in philosophy focus mainly on writing as a way for the creation and cultivation of the self. He is also a student of Sanskrit at the School of Practical Philosophy in Valletta. Currently in final preparations for the publication of a cycle of writings based on etchings by symbolist Belgian artist Felicien Rops.

The Palestinian writer and activist Suzan Sahori from Bethlehem documents the everyday lives of people she meets as a fair trader and as a social and cultural activist in Beit Sahour.

Her writings, part journalistic, part literary, focus on the misery of common people rather than on the politics and history that have brought about that misery. An organization in Dublin is working on a publication which will bring together her writings about every day in Occupied Palestine. Many of these short pieces, similar to blog entries, are available on the US-based website www.hcef.org.

Suzan Sahori is the International Relations Director of the Fair Trade Organization, The Holy Land Handicraft Cooperative Society. (Picture of Suzan Sahori published in Illum)

Karl Schembri (1978) is a Maltese poet, short story writer and editor of the independent weekly newspaper Malta Today. He is a sociology graduate from the University of Malta and has written a collection of short stories, Taħt il-Kappa tax-Xemx (Malta: Minima, 2002) and a novel, Il-Manifest tal-Killer (Malta: Choppy, 2006).

"On an official level," he writes about his novel, "Malta is somehow bound to appear more Catholic than the Pope. Out on the streets, there's a silent yet subversive Malta rebelling in its own way. That is essentially Mario Brincat. The main character of my story." In October 2008 Lemonhead Productions will present a stage adaptation of Il-Manifest tal-Killer.

He published his first poems with three other poets in the anthology Frekwenzi ta' Spirti fis-Sakra (Malta: 1997). Il-manifest tal-killer was censored by the University of Malta's radio station, Campus FM, after the management learnt that it was going to be read in the literary programme series Wara Arrigo in January 2007. He is also founding chairman of the Journalists’ Committee.

Aðalsteinn Ásberg Sigurðsson (1955) was born in Húsavík, north Iceland, and grew up in the region. After attending the Commercial College of Iceland in Reykjavík, he studied Icelandic language, music and acting. In 1977 he made his literary debut with a book of poetry, Ósánar lendur (Virgin Soil). Since then he has published 12 books of poetry and translated poetry, one novel and 10 children´s books. Apart from the books he has produced many recordings of his lyrics and songs. His most recent books of poetry are Eyðibýli (Abandoned Farms) 2004, with photographs by Nökkvi Eliasson, and Hjartaborg (Borough of the Heart) 2007. Sigurðsson lives in Reykjavík as a full-time writer, songwriter and publisher of music and literature.
 

Paola Turroni (1971) was born in Monza, Italy where she studied the classics until she started to roam, to change lives and cities, for study and for the fun of it, until she settled in Luino on the Lago Maggiore. She attended the DAMS in Bologna and the European School of Theatre and Cinema in Milan. At present she works as an teacher within the residential community Asilo Mariuccia.

She holds cinema, communication and theatre workshops in schools, within associations, at youth centres, for children and for adults, with particular emphasis on adolescent angst, on intercultural relations and on women’s issues.

She has collaborated with Rai Radiodue, the Natural Histroy Museum of Milan, the Isia at Urbino, the Aba of Bologna, the Università Popolare at Luino, the Casa Circondariale di Varese, the Comune of Cesena and the Comune of Luino. She holds readings and performances in various cities, amongst which Bologna, Milan, Rimini, Varese, Castrocaro, Ravenna, Luino, Santarcangelo, Cesenatico, Florence, Monza, Parma.

Her work is based also on the search for effective ways to share poerty, both at a vocal-instrumental level as well as at performance level. She collaborates with drummer Antonio Azzarito). Her works have appeared in various journals, magazines and on internet sites.

In  2000 she published her volume of “animal” poetry (Fara Editore, Rimini).

In 2003 she published her book of narrative “Due mani di colore” (“Two coloured hands”) (Medusa Editore, Milano), in collaboration with Sabrina Foschini.

In 2003 she published her collection of poems “Il vincolo del volo” (“The chains of flight”)  (Raffelli Editore, Rimini), of which a selection has been issued translated into English for the American journal “How2”.

In 2003 she is included in the anthology “I colori delle donne” (“The colours of women”)  2002-2003” (Lìbrati Editrice, Ascoli Piceno)

In 2004 she collaborated as translator on “I surrealisti francesi” (“The French Surrealists”)  (Stampa Alternativa, Viterbo).

In  2004 she was invited to the International Poetry Festival in  Malta.

In  2004 she is present in the anthology “Parco Poesia 2004” (Guaraldi, Rimini)

In 2006 she is included in the book-journal “Il segreto delle fragole” (“The secrets of the strawberries”)  (Lietocolle, Como).

In 2007 she is included in the anthology “Corale” (“Coral”) (Le Voci della Luna, Bologna).

In 2008 she is included in the anthology “12 poetesse italiane” (“12 Italian women poets”)  Nuova Editrice Magenta, Varese.

(Translated from Italian by Sandra Vassallo)

Zizza Ensemble (Malta) is an angular funk foursome with a cartoonish swagger and a wicked streak. The band plays an (inevitably) eclectic mix of Funk, Ska, Jazz and Blues Rock. Zizza Ensemble's first incarnation dates back to the year 2005, when a group of young people with an interest in swing and bossa nova decided to put together a band. After some line-up changes, the band grew disillusioned with its musical direction, and ditched the jazz standards and jam numbers in favour of its own brand of malevolent funk.

The members of Zizza Ensemble are Steve Delia on guitars, Ruth Abela on saxophone, Charles Cassar on bass, and Mark 'Zizza' Abela on drums. Although relatively new to the local scene and made up of young and up-and-coming musicians, the band has already played several successful gigs, including shows in unlikely venues such as the Vittoriosa and Marsalforn waterfronts. Poet Adrian Grima performed with Zizza Ensemble at the fair trade festival WorldFest 2007. Listen to Zizza Ensemble