Better and more exciting literary festival in UAE next year

Dubai: More than one-third of authors confirmed for the 2010 Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature (EAIFL) are Arabic-language writers, Gulf News has learnt.

This is due to feedback from this year's inaugural festival.

Isobel Aboulhoul, EAIFL Director, said: "It was driven by demand, for many many people, particularly from the Arab world, the festival's a new experience. It was quite difficult to get across the concept: people know about seminars and they know about a lecture. I spent a long time saying to people you know this is not lectures, this is not boring, dull ‘you will be improved by coming here', it's about engaging debate, arguing, perhaps disagreeing, but you will be on the edge of your seats. And it is live, and it is real and it is connecting in the reader, the audience and the writer.

"People went in, of all nationalities, and their faces lit up and when they came out they said, ‘Oh, this is what it is.' Very much the feedback has been both from the writers and the audiences and the educators, this is fantastic and we need more. We need more variety, we need more writers, we need more sessions," she told Gulf News at the sidelines of a literary majlis, held on Tuesday evening.

Mixed panels

The number of Emirati authors attending the 2010 event has also quadrupled.

"This year we said we can do more, we can have more mixed panels. Last year we didn't put Arabic speakers with people writing in English, because we didn't have the translation system. We know we've got it [for next year], so there's a real opportunity for mixed-panel debates," Aboulhoul said.

Emirati authors attending next year include: Nujoom Al Ganem, who read from her work School Poems at the Majlis.

Four other authors also gave readings: Dubai-based Maha Gargash read from The Sand Fish; Julia Johnson read from The Pearl Diver; Professor Yousuf Ziedan read from Azazil; and Abu-Dhabi-based Leila Aboulela read from The Minaret.

Aboulela's 2005 work The Minaret was longlisted for the Orange and Impac prizes.

"I lived a long time in London and the UK and was always interested in how Muslim immigrants, when they come to the UK they still hold on to their religion and they care very much about establishing in the UK. I was very touched by the effort they made to take their children to the mosque and to get together on Fridays and so on, so that was one of the inspirations [for the book]," she told Gulf News.

Aboulela has also written about the political changes that took place in Sudan in the 1980s and 1990s.

"A lot of people had to leave Sudan, and [my work looks at] the difficulty of actually moving from one culture to another, especially if the move is forced on you," she said. Confirmed authors for next year's event include: Fadil Al Azzawi, Kate Adie, Samer Abu Hawwash, Martin Amis, Francis Wheen, Alexander McCall Smith, William Dalrymple, Turki Al Hamad, Samuel Shimon and Ahdaf Soueif.

Deputy Chairman of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) Mohammad Al Murr gave an opening speech at the majlis.

EAIFL is a celebration of literature in all its forms. EAIFL is held under the patronage of Dubai Culture and will run from March 10 to 13.

A new scheme for festival-goers has also been launched for 2010. ‘Festival Friends' is a membership scheme with benefits such as ticket discounts, fast-track ticket reservation, newsletters and a dedicated ‘Festival Friends' area at the festival itself.

New scheme

A new scheme for festival-goers has also been launched for 2010. ‘Festival Friends' is a membership scheme with benefits such as ticket discounts, fast-track ticket reservation, newsletters and a dedicated ‘Festival Friends' area at the festival itself.

Are you looking forward to this year's Dubai literary festival? Who are you looking forward to seeing the most? Should more awareness be made on Arabic literature in the region?