Poet and University of Malta academic Prof. Norbert Bugeja has participated as a guest poet at the VIIIth Edition of the Sidi Bou Said International Poetry Festival, held in Tunisia between the 16 and the 19 June 2022.
One of the most prominent literary festivals across the Mediterranean, the Sidi Bou Said International Festival brought together, for this year’s edition, more than thirty major poets, translators, publishers and editors from around the world, to recite their poetry as well as share their views on the evolving world-literary map, translation and inter-cultural communication worldwide.
Norbert Bugeja recited his poetry at different venues in Sidi Bou Said, reading his work in Maltese with subsequent recitals of French and Arabic renditions of his poems, translated by Irene Mangion and Jamel Jlassi respectively.
Professor Bugeja was also invited as a speaker on the Poetry Across Shores debating panel organ-ised at Sidi Bou Said’s prestigious Ennejma Ezzahra cultural centre, where he contributed his views on the affinities between translation, poetry, language and the communication of literature across shores and cultural realities, including those of Tunisia and Malta. During his visit, Professor Bugeja also had the opportunity to talk about poetry and the literature of Malta on Tunisian national broad-caster RTCI Radio, in a discussion programme with cultural radio host Dr Haifa Dallegi.
This year’s edition of the Festival featured some major international poetry exponents, including major Argentinian poet Leopoldo ‘Teuco’ Castilla, Raquel Lanceros (Spain), Stephane Chaumet (Colombia/France), Leonardo Tonus (Brasil/France), Frank Smith (France), Marthia Carrozzo (Ita-ly), Ahmed Al-Mulla (Saudi Arabia) and other writers, as well as major Francophone and Arabo-phone poetry publishers.
During his stay in Tunisia, Professor Bugeja, who is Director of the Mediterranean Institute at the University of Malta, also attended the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta, and the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities of Tunisia’s prestigious University of La Manouba, for which H.E. Ambassador Simon Pullicino, whose assistance in bringing both institutions together was crucial, was also present.
Professor Bugeja’s participation at the Sidi Bou Said International Poetry Festival marks another significant moment in the international and regional representation of the literature of Malta and its cultural output in the Mediterranean region and further afield. Prof. Bugeja would like to extend his thanks to the Embassy of Malta in Tunisia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Malta) for their assistance in making possible this highly productive visit.
