Emerging writers to get networking opportunities

Dubai: Emerging authors are set to gain a platform at the 2010 Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature (EAIFL), Gulf News has learned. An emerging author may be one who is unpublished, writers who have published one book, a self-published author or someone who wants to be published, Isobel Abulhoul, Director, EAIFL, said.

The category, she said, is important and it's the role of the festival to help develop emerging authors.

"We have a lot of talent that is from here. It's an important linchpin when we go forward that we should be encouraging talent from within the emirates, from within our region."

It doesn't matter where you're from, she continued, but you could be living here, are talented and have written a book — "we would be the hub for helping ... writers to get in touch with each other, to facilitate connections between emerging writers and established writers."

A focus on emerging authors will be introduced at next year's festival, but will become a "stronger part" of the programme in 2011, Abulhoul said.

To date, a total of 73 authors and 82 sessions will be hosted at EAIFL 2010, under the patronage of Dubai Culture.

Accessible to all

This year's inaugural EAIFL, held at the InterContinental Dubai-Festival City, saw a host of renowned authors congregate to discuss literature in all its forms. Sessions were held in English and Arabic, with instant translation, making the events open to all.

Key strands at EAIFL 2010 will be an education day programme, fringe programme and workshops programme. Parts of the festival are paid for, while other events are free of charge.

While the main focus of EAIFL is literacy and helping to encourage reading and thus improve literacy rates, another focus is on education. The inaugural EAIFL included a dedicated education day, where authors themselves went into schools to communicate with the younger generation. Education is also a focus of next year's festival, to which students from Arabic faculties around the world have been invited.

"It's a unique opportunity for them [the students] to listen to today's literary greats in Arabic," Abulhoul said.

The simultaneous translation, she continued, will enable the students to listen in Arabic.

Students will also have a chance to speak to the authors themselves.

Students from English and English literature faculties in the region are also being invited, to this "growing area of the festival".

"Reading should be for everyone: the joy of books should be for everyone, not just for an elite few. Our literary festival is for everyone." Abulhoul concluded.

Focus: 776m are illiterate

Worldwide, 776 million people lack basic literacy skills. Two-thirds of this figure represents women. Adult literacy in the Arab World is also lacking, with a rate of just 66 per cent — one of the lowest in the world.

"Writers worldwide are all very keen that everybody is literate, because if you're not literate, then you can't read and they would have nowhere for their books to go.

"Every single writer has a vested interest in improving literacy rates. That is why we've been able to attract many famous and renowned authors, because they understand immediately why our focus is on literacy and why there's an underpinning desire to improve literacy rates," Abulhoul told Gulf News.

- Source: Unesco, ‘Global Monitoring Report on Education for All, 2008'

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