The interdisciplinary and pro-women program of the Malta Festival will be enriched by a literary section. After announcing a meeting with Nobel Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk, it’s time for Women Talking – conversations with female writers who convey truths about the world through their prose. These meetings will be hosted by Michał Nogaś.

The name Women Talking is a reference to the title of a book by Miriam Toews, who will be one of Michał Nogaś’s interviewees. Toews has published in outlets such as The Guardian and The New York Times Magazine. She is also the recipient of over twenty awards, including the most prestigious Canadian literary honors – the Doris Giller Prize and the Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson Prize, awarded by the Writers’ Trust of Canada. In 2018, she released the impactful and moving Women Talking, which appeared on the year-end lists of The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, and Time. In 2023, the film adaptation of the novel won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Another of Michał Nogaś’s guests will be Amanda Lee Koe. The Singaporean writer made her debut with the short story collection Ministry of Moral Panic, which became a true sensation in her home country’s literary scene. Koe has been praised for her uncompromising language and courage in portraying contemporary Singapore. A scholarship at Columbia University allowed her to move to the USA, where in 2019, she published her first novel, Delayed Rays of a Star, which received enthusiastic critical acclaim. “It’s the moral challenges that every woman faces, and the fine line between fulfilling one’s ambitions and selling one’s soul, that lie at the heart of this novel,” reads an NPR review.

“Books, like good gossip, have a life of their own. The more I write, the harder it is for me to converse. When I have to say something about myself, I hide behind books. I’m just a comma in a sentence I wrote,” says Elżbieta Cherezińska about herself and her work. The writer and theater scholar made her debut with a biography of Szewach Weiss, which she co-wrote with the former Israeli ambassador to Poland. She gained fame through her historical novels. Her book Legion was recognized by Magazyn Literacki Książki as the Book of the Year 2013. Last year’s release, Słowo się rzekło, won the readers’ choice poll on the website lubimyczytac.pl in the Historical Novel category.

The identity of the fourth guest in the series will be announced in the coming days. Malta Festival 2024 will begin on Saturday, September 7, and will run until Sunday, September 15. All details about individual events can be found in the “Programme” section.