Abu Dhabi: A 14-year-old Emirati girl’s love for books has led her to write novels, a move she hopes will inspire other young Arabs to work towards reaching their full potential and changing the world’s perception of young Arabs’ capabilities.
Aisha Al Naqbi’s first book Blue Moon was published in April last year when she was just 13 and she has just finished the draft for her second book and is well on her way to plotting her third novel.
At first glance, Al Naqbi seems like every other teenager but it takes only a short conversation with her for one to realise that she speaks very differently from other people her age, much more maturely and with a vocabulary far beyond her years. However, one look at her room and her collection of around 250 books and it soon becomes evident why she has such strong language skills.
Extremely polite and down to earth, Al Naqbi, said that although she often jotted down her ideas, her journey into writing began when she got the thread for a story, with characters that she loved, in 2013, at age 11. “I realised right away that I had a novel in my hand,” she recalls.
Al Naqbi came up with the first chapter of her story and then spent the next two years plotting the novel from beginning to end.
In 2015, having researched in depth the art of writing books, a very dedicated Al Naqbi got to work and began the writing process.
“I would set a certain time for writing… I would finish my homework and start writing.”
After about five months of disciplined writing, Al Naqbi finally finished her first book towards the end of 2015.
“When I wrote the last page, I took a breath and I thought ‘I’m done, I did something that I didn’t think that I would do.’”
Once the teenager informed her parents that she was finished with her story, they started to search for a publisher in order to encourage their daughter to continue writing. However, a search for a someone that would print Al Naqbi’s story proved to be challenging as the book was in English and written by a teenager.
“They [publishers] were wary and sceptical. They weren’t sure if I wrote the whole book. They thought she must have brought it from somewhere, she must have plagiarised it,” she said.
However, finally a UAE-based publisher, Kuttab Publishing, decided to take a chance on her and Blue Moon was released at the 2016 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
Al Naqbi received both praise and criticism for her 226-page novel that follows the adventures of a 16-year-old hacker in trouble with the FBI who flees to a village in the hope of finding sanctuary.
“Lots of parents said well done and congratulations. But other people took a different approach and said why did you not write the book in Arabic? You are an Arab, why are you writing in English?”
Al Naqbi did not allow the criticism to get to her and instead started plotting her second book, a follow-up to Blue Moon, which she is in the process of editing now and hopes will be published in time for the 2017 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
“I am very ambitious; when I want something, I would sacrifice a limb to get what I want,” she says laughing.
People’s scepticism over the authenticity and quality of her work has inspired Al Naqbi to be even more serious about her writing in hopes of inspiring others to follow their passion.
“I am trying to show that age is just a number. Anyone can do anything. Age doesn’t matter.”
Al Naqbi is also aware that with her book being in English it provides the international audience with the opportunity to see an Emirati girl’s work, which she hopes helps in changing people’s inaccurate ideas about Arabs, especially women.
“I feel like these days people outside [in the West] have a certain mindset about Arab people... I hope with me writing this book it breaks that stereotype a little bit, breaks the mould.”
As she puts the final touches on her second novel while plotting her third book at the same time, Al Naqbi said she hopes other young people will follow their passion and “do great things”, whatever it may be.
