The Festival is the biggest one of its kind to date.
The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature had a star-studded start featuring several award-winning authors and experts from across the world. The scale of The Festival has increased by several folds this year making it the greatest one to date. Over 270 authors from more than 50 different countries are participating for the 2023 edition of the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature.
The line-up
The exciting line-up includes Brian Cox of Emmy-award-winning Succession-fame, Mohsin Hamid, Alexander McCall Smith, Jeffrey Archer, David Walliams, Ben Miller and Oliver Jeffers just to name a few.
Noted Indian journalist Barkha Dutt and renowned writer Reza Aslan will join the conversation with His Excellency Omar Saif Ghobash. Other participants of the discussion include Malaysian journalist and author Marina Mahathir, award-winning Iraqi novelist Inaam Kachachi, notable Saudi poet Jassim Al Saheeh and Emirati author Maisoon Saker Al Qassimi, the 2022 winner of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.
UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri, former CEO of Unilever and co-author of Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, Paul Polman, President of the Emirates Marine Environmental Group, Major Ali Al Suwaidi, and environmental journalist, Anna Turns will front talks on the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Category.
For the first time ever, Festival Old Friend Lemn Sissay will serve as a guest curator. The BAFTA-nominated, internationally acclaimed author and poet, who participated in the Festival in 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2021, will return to Dubai with a calendar of poetry-related events and a focus on writing about foster children.
The Festival will also host 20 festival directors from around the world, representing international literary festivals, in an extraordinary general meeting of the Global Association of Literary Festivals.
The Activities
This year, the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature has joined forces with Mohammed Bin Rashid Library to expand its reach. The partnership allows the Festival to host a bigger programme of events and accommodate a bigger audience as well as symbolise the bridging of the art, culture, lifestyle and literature community.
This year’s Emirates Airline Festival of Literature also boasts a strong line up of discussions around climate change including the announcement of the Emirates Literature Foundation for the launch of Elf in Space – a fun and educational initiative with Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center.
The programme aims to engage children with Astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi while he’s on board the International Space Station for six months. The interactions with Sultan and the other astronauts involved in the programme, Nora Al Matrooshi and Hazzaa Al Mansoori, will serve as the stimuli to engage, excite, and educate students across the UAE and the region.
With two special events, the Festival also commemorates the 140th birthday of renowned Lebanese American novelist Gibran Kahlil Gibran and the 100th anniversary of his magnum opus ‘The Prophet’. An animated rendition of the 1923 novel will be screened on Friday, 3 February followed by a live discussion and Q&A with producers Clark Peterson and Haytham Nasr and director Roger Allers.
Fans of Gibran can also attend a dinner and show event with a limited number of seats where the artist’s work and life will be artistically depicted through song, music, and visual performance. The food has been specifically designed by Chef George, who is from Bsharri, the city where Gibran was born.
There will be a number of book launches at the Festival including Feeding the Soul which features recipes by the inmates of Dubai’s penal and correctional institutions.
The Emirates Airline Festival is taking place at InterContinental Dubai Festival City and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library from 1-6 February. Throughout the week, the festival promises to feature almost 300 sessions including inspiring talks from the biggest names in literature.
Date
1-6 February
Location
InterContinental Dubai Festival City & Mohammed Bin Rashid Library, Dubai
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Image source Emirates Airline Festival of Literature
