Dubai: The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature opened to rapturous celebration Wednesday with more children performing for the authors at the opening ceremony.
More than 100 authors taking part in the festival were entertained by a performance of festival anthem The Adventure by 200 students from Jumeirah English Speaking School (JESS).
Poetry performances in both English and Arabic were a special treat for the authors, who could be found wandering the halls of the Intercontinental hotel. Chris Cleave, author of Incendiary, and renowned author Roger McGough was also found perusing the book selection.
"All of us here today will have favourite books and favourite writers, and if we are asked about one of those books, not only do we remember the story vividly, we remember where we were, the time, and the effect the writer's words had on us. Powerful stuff!", Isobel Abulhoul, Director of the festival said in her opening speech at the Intercontinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City.
The busy halls of the hotel were packed with authors giving impromptu interviews, discussions and attendees excitedly waiting to have their books signed.
The first session on Wednesday saw three talented Emirati writers and an illustrator talking about what it's like to have their first book published.
Thursday's schedule sees Alexander McCall Smith, Adhaf Soueif, Shobhaa De and Jeffrey Deaver take to the session platforms. Deaver, international best-selling crime writer, read extracts of his poem The Death of Reading, while UAE-based poet Khalid Al Budoor recited ‘Reading the Postman', which is a poem from his newly published collection of 19th century works by Dubai poets at the opening ceremony.
"More than 100 authors have gathered in Dubai from the four corners of the globe, with a mandate to debate and inspire throughout the next four days. There will, I'm sure, be many highlights throughout the main author programme, Education Day and Fringe, but the wonderful opening ceremony has provided us with a flying start," Abulhoul continued.
The literature festival runs from March 10-13, Intercontinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City and is held under the patronage of the Dubai Arts and Culture Authority.
