Eight authors from across the globe will be travelling to Malta for this year's edition of the Mediterranean Literature Festival. The event will kick off on Thursday 24 August and will go on until Saturday 26 August.

The festival this year is in its 12th edition and will be held at Fort St Elmo in Valletta. Renowned Maltese authors Immanuel Mifsud and Alfred Sant are among the participants.

John Aquilina, from the UK, Asja Bakic from Bosnia, Mourid Barghouti from Palestine and Lilia Romdhane from Tunisia will be among the guest authors. Other authors come from Myanmar, Latvia and Macedonia.

Launching the event, the Minister for Culture Owen Bonnici said that the Cultural Partnership Agreement is serving as a platform to strengthen the Government's three priorities in the cultural sector which are; bringing culture closer to the people, increasing professionalism in the sector and increasing its contribution to economic growth via cultural tourism and job creation.

The Minister explained how literature plays an important role in the culture of a country. This is due to the fact that it portrays the way of living and society of a country during the period when it is written. Minister Bonnici stated that, while this Festival serves to exchange different ideas between local and international authors, it also places Maltese literature on an international scale since this Festival was also recognised internationally by the EFFE (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe).

The event, which has attracts quite a large audience, is organised by Literature Across Frontiers and Inizjamed. The event is co-financed by the EU Creativity Programme. As from this year, until 2019, the event is being organised in partnership with the Malta Arts Council under the Cultural Agreement Partnership.