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<\/p>\nThe 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\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
The Festival\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Festival director Ahlam Bolooki said, \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Many sessions were sold out, including award-winning novelists Esi Edugyan and Fatima Bhutto, visual artist and children\u2019s 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<\/strong><\/em>, one of the world\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n As the first man to reach both Poles, his advice for young adventurers was all about mind over matter. \u201cThe mindset of an explorer is to go for the most difficult journey\u2026it\u2019s important to be patient otherwise you will easily fail\u2026\u201d says Fiennes.<\/p>\n The Festival saw the launch of a groundbreaking book, Tomorrow I Will Fly<\/strong><\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n\r\n