The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature drew to a rousing finale over the weekend with a session featuring an exceptional night of music, poetry and readings in support of Dubai Cares’ programs for child refugees across the region. The event capped six days of literary entertainment featuring a record-breaking 206 authors from 43 countries and a strong contingent of home-grown talent, the most significant number ever featured at the Festival.
The Festival’s opening event, Desert Stanzas, an atmospheric evening of world poetry in the desert, was honored with a visit from Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority. At the same time, His Excellency, Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahyan attended the launch of 30 children’s picture books in Arabic and English, written and illustrated by emerging Emiratis, a collaboration between the Ministry of Tolerance and the Emirates Literature Foundation. For the first time selected festival sessions were live-streamed to almost 100,000 students at 284 schools from each of the seven Emirates.
Festival director Ahlam Bolooki said, “This Festival is our responsibility to our community and the world, a safe place for dialogue, an opportunity of kindred spirits to connect, and most importantly a place to dream big. And this edition delivered that, and was an exceptional one.”
Many sessions were sold out, including award-winning novelists Esi Edugyan and Fatima Bhutto, visual artist and children’s book illustrator Oliver Jeffers and from the UAE space program, Hazzaa AlMansouri fresh from his first venture into space. At the Festival to promote his latest book, Armed and Dangerous, one of the world’s most recognized explorers, Ranulph Fiennes shared how his book unpacks the 42 generations of military experience his family has gained as proud members of the military across various countries.
As the first man to reach both Poles, his advice for young adventurers was all about mind over matter. “The mindset of an explorer is to go for the most difficult journey…it’s important to be patient otherwise you will easily fail…” says Fiennes.
The Festival saw the launch of a groundbreaking book, Tomorrow I Will Fly, written by the inmates of the Penal and Correctional Institutions in Dubai. There was also a dedicated Publishing Day, where global industry experts held sessions, masterclasses and workshops on key aspects of publishing, and a conference for directors of international literary festivals which attracted 30 participants for the four corners of the world.
The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is the Arab World’s largest celebration of the written and spoken word, featuring international and regional writers, poets, thinkers and speakers from around the world. In 2019 the Festival reached more than 45,000 people which featured Ahmed AlShugairi, Chris Gardner, Darcey Bussell, Jane Hawking, Saud Alsanousi, Douglas Coupland, Ian Rankin, Jeff Kinney, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, among many others.
The aim of the Festival is to develop a culture of reading, and its efforts have been recognized through many awards over the years. By providing an equal platform for international and locally-based talents, the Festival continues to build the literary landscape in the UAE and further afield.
Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the Festival is a vital part of the Emirates Literature Foundation, which was established in 2013 by Royal Decree. In partnership with Emirates Airline and the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated authority for heritage, arts, and culture, the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature will be back for 2020.
By Hermoine Macura-Noble
The first Australian English speaking News Anchor in the Middle East. She is also the Author of Faces of the Middle East and Founder of US-based 501c3 charity – The House of Rest which helps to ease the suffering of victims of war. For more from our Contributing Editor, you can follow her on Instagram, here.
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