Sharjah: Don’t miss the chance to grab a few more books to read as the 37th edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) draws to a close on Saturday.
The 11-day cultural feast, organised by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), brought more than 20 million books featuring 1.6 million titles, including 80,000 new titles to the UAE.
The decades-old, free-to-enter book fair this year pooled together a host of leading authors, publishers and activities.
A total of 1,874 publishing houses from 77 countries descended on Sharjah, making it the biggest edition so far in terms of the number of publishers and the volume of books this year.
Meanwhile, the second phase of the ‘1001 Titles’ publishing initiative received 1,334 entries from Arab and Emirati authors and publishers, of which 500 titles were approved and published.
Launched in 2017 to support the publication of first-edition Arabic language titles, the second edition of 1001 Titles has a budget of Dh5 million to support 700 titles submitted by members of the Emirates Publishers Association (EPA) and 301 books by Emirati authors.
During its participation at this year’s book fair, 1001 Titles hosted several book signing ceremonies to familiarise fair visitors with some of the titles that were published in its second phase.
Majd Al Shehi, manager of 1001 Titles, said the initiative is keen to promote quality homegrown books at local, regional and international cultural events.
“We seek to introduce readers and publishers to the UAE’s literary achievements and enhance cross-cultural communication,” Al Shehi said.
It also organised a matchmaking session for authors and publishers to explore ways of collaboration. During the course of the session, suggestions about future possible publications, which will result from these collaborations and supported by the 1001 Titles initiative, were also made.
Authors were also on hand for book signing ceremonies including Aliah Al Fukaiki for ‘Stories from the Arab World’; Moza Al Qaidi who wrote ‘Lulu and the Marvelous Umbrella’; Ams Al Shamsi for ‘The Three Clouds’; Salmeh Kaaosh for the ‘Readings from Andalusian Literary Masterpieces’; Aisha Al Naqbi who penned ‘The Blue Moon’, and ‘The Crimson Planet’; and Jasem Obaid Al Zuaabi for ‘Our Children are on the path of the Story’.
The selected books also included ‘Baba Zayed and UAE’s Nation’, and ‘Moza and Her Smart Device’ by Shaima Al Marzouqi; ‘Angel’s Kiss’ by Sahar Naja; ‘Life is Wishes’, by Abdullah Al Za.abi; ‘Nawaf the Ferryman’ by Maitha Al Khayyat, and many others.
