Writers reveal their inspirations at Dubai literature festival

Dubai: From famous authors speaking on their favourite books, to children enjoying a story session or a recital of poems from 19th century Dubai accompanied by the harp, the second Emirates Airline Literature Festival continues to provide something for everyone.

On the topic of ‘inspiration', Yann Martel (Life of Pi), Imtiaz Dharker and Bahaa Taher (Sunset Oasis), which won the first International Prize for Arabic Fiction), held an in-depth discussion.

"At the moment of creativity, all sources of talent gather and combine forces, the moment of inspiration combines and the forces come together," Taher said.

However, when a writer gets stuck, he continued: "he/she should stop writing. All roads are good and all methods are good in creativity. There is plenty of writing that has no inspiration or worth," Taher said candidly.

Autograph please

For Martel, each writers' inspiration is unique "in a very banal way, in the way that a dentist is inspired by teeth, or an accountant is inspired by all the numbers. But what links all of these is a sense of unity, I think what is a source of disturbance is the sense of disharmony, a feeling of being pulled in many directions at once. In terms of literature, that moment is when things come together and make sense, when it fits into a story — not just the plot of a story, but coherent narrative. This helps make sense of things."

Many of the authors held book signings after their sessions, patiently waiting as huge crowds of enthusiastic book lovers waited their turn.

Special guest

The inaugural evening was complemented by a recital of poems from the newly released book Looking Back with Love: Dubai Poems from the 1800s, published and performed in both English and Arabic.

Shaikh Majid Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Culture, was presented with a copy of the book, during his attendance as a special guest at the recital.

Poems were recited by poet Khalid Al Budoor in Arabic and English poems were performed by Iraqi poet Fadil Al Azzawi (who also translated the poems into English).

Education day

Thousands of children attended the second dedicated Education Day yesterday to listen to bestselling authors attending the festival. Held at the Cultural and Scientific Centre, Roger McGough, Darren Shan, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Caroline Lawrence, Michelle Paver and Garth Nix took to the stage to read from their bestselling works.

Nadine Touma (award-winning Lebanese author, artist and publisher) and Fatima Sharaf Al Deen (who has more than 35 books to her name) were also hosted by Al Safa and Al Twar libraries respectively, to interact with students and share their literary experiences.

"Education Day is always one of the highlights of the festival, and I know that students and authors get so much from the experience. Thank you to all the schools across Dubai and Sharjah who helped make it such a memorable morning," Isobel Abulhoul, the festival's director, said.

In defence of Amis

Renowned author Martin Amis spoke about his controversial comments on Islam at the literature festival on Wednesday night, while also making more controversial comments during the session.

Amis was criticised heavily for his previous remarks, that intimated Islam was at fault for terrorist attacks. "It was a rash remark, made at a terrible time, but let's understand that 10 years on from September 11, and we still don't have a usable word for what we mean. ‘Islamism' is hopeless, because it's got too many letters in common with Islam, and people think you're talking about Islam, when you're not. More than 95 per cent of Muslims are horrified by this radical neolistic wing, and it shouldn't be connected verbally or otherwise with mainstream Islam," he told a packed audience at the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City.

"I said ‘there's an urge to say that Islam must put its house in order, and we should have racial profiling', and all that, by the next day I'd already changed my mind, because that's collective punishment, and that never works," he clarified.

"All I said was there was an urge to say it, and no one can tell me there wasn't an urge to say it that day," he continued.

Amis slammed the English press during the session: "Everything I say gets twisted and distorted", he said of his controversial comments about euthanasia and the elderly.

"There'll be a population of demented very old people, like an invasion of terrible immigrants, stinking out the restaurants and cafes and shops," Amis was quoted in The Times earlier this year.

Amis said that he had "no problem" with the Scottish, Irish or Welsh, but with the English, "metropolitan journalists". "There's nothing controversial in what I say," he said.