The National Literacy Agency, in collaboration with Heritage Malta, organised a Writing Stars Festival at the Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa. Forty-five children from state and church Middle Schools in Malta and Gozo took part.

The Writing Stars initiative for Middle Schools offers creative writing opportunities for promising 12-year-old writers, who excelled in the writing component of the English and Maltese annual examinations. During this year's Writing Festival, the students participated in various workshops run by famous Maltese authors namely Rita Saliba, John A. Bonello, Clare Azzopardi, Trevor Zahra, Ivan De Battista, Charles Casha and Carmel G. Cauchi and two renowned British authors, Cat Weatherill and Ian Douglas. Each student was given a certificate of participation and Maltese and English reading books.

The Writing Stars initiative is one of the various writing for pleasure activities, organised by the National Literacy Agency, in several localities around Malta and Gozo.