Dubai: ELF Publishing LLC, a new independent publishing house that will “champion exceptional storytelling in Arabic and English” was launched by Emirates Literature Foundation (ELF) on Wednesday in Dubai.
“ELF Publishing will discover fresh voices from the UAE – whether they are Emiratis or expatriates – who write stories in either English or Arabic that have international appeal,” Ahlam Bolooki, managing director of ELF Publishing, told Gulf News.
“We are looking forward to discovering more fiction stories and fresh Arabic literature that can be translated to English that have global appeal,” she added.
With an initial focus on fiction across all genres, ELF Publishing will begin accepting submissions for consideration in March, during the Month of Reading. Stories about the region from Emiratis and expats are encouraged, and there will also be a particular attention on capturing the stories of times gone by, and preserving the oral history of the region in written form.
Natural progression
Bolooki, who is also the festival director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature taking place at Habtoor City hotels from February 3 to 13, said: “The launch of ELF Publishing is a natural progression for us, completing the journey that began with the first festival in 2009.
“We have supported readers and writers in the region with a myriad of initiatives, including our education programme and student competitions; writing courses, the Emirates LitFest Writing Prize, and First Chapter: the ELF Seddiqi Writers’ Fellowship, the School Librarian of the Year Award; the prison project ‘From the Inside Out’ , Voices of Future Generations, and Kateb Maktub, which is our partnership with Wikipedia.”
She added: “All these initiatives have made a significant improvement in the number of readers in the region, and starting from the premise that there are no readers without writers, it is now time to continue this symbiotic relationship with the festival by turning our attention to authors, looking forward to the next 50 years of literary success.”
Literature ecosytem
Isobel Abulhoul, CEO and trustee of ELF, said: “ELF Publishing is the next piece of the jigsaw puzzle of the entire ecosystem of literature. It continues a proud tradition of literary endeavour. It is amazing to see what has been achieved in the last 50 years in the UAE in terms of literature and for a young country, we have certainly been punching above our weight.”
She added that ELF Publishing augments the achievements and UAE’s track record of championing literature through the pioneering work of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah; as well as the establishment of Abu Dhabi International Book Fair and Sharjah World Book Fair; Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s prominent role in the industry as President of the International Publishers’ Association; and the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.
Abulhoul added: “What we are not is a vanity publisher. We will be selecting stories that we believe deserve to be read, operating in the traditional way, with books chosen on merit. We want to find the undiscovered stories that deserve to be read in today’s ever-changing world, whether from Emiratis or expats.”
Titles will be published in Arabic and English. Initial offerings will include the second anthology of stories from Voices of Future Generations Middle East, Young Voices of Arabia 2021, which will be launched at the LitFest next month.
First authors
Among the first authors signed to the publishing house are Ebtisam Al Beiti and Julia Johnson, both of whom will be appearing at the 2022 Emirate Airline Festival of Literature. Julia Johnson, an established children’s writer in the region, is teaming up with Maitha Al Khayat, who will create the illustrations for Julia’s new book, in what ELF Publishing hopes will be the first of many collaborations in the region.
Festival of letters
Meanwhile, organisers also announced details of the upcoming Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. It will begin with a dedicated Emirati Day on February 3. Special events will include dinner with Italian master chef Alessandro Borghese, and a not-to-be-missed Dickensian (novels of Charles Dickens) feast. There will also be performances from spoken word artists and international authors of 2021 such as Brit Bennet and Lucy Foley, who had huge best-sellers with their novels The Vanishing Half and The Guest List.
There will also be experts from the worlds of science, history and art. Popular crime writer Mark Billingham will be present as well as actor Ben Miller, who starred as Lord Archibald Featherington in Bridgerton. YouTuber Ahmed El Ghandour, aka Al Da7ee7; and master thriller writer David Baldacci who will be joining the Festival virtually.
Top names
Other top names appearing at this year’s literature festival are Gary Vee, Nadiya Hussain, David Walliams, Iman Mersal, Indra Nooyi, Azza Fahmy and Omar Saif Ghobash, who will be launching his first novel. Bridgerton author Julia Quinn, House of Gucci author Sara Gay Forden, Chernobyl 1986 author Serhii Plokhy, and Ken Arto, animator of Demon Slayer, will be all live in-person to discuss their works.
Organisers also promised a “vibrant and interactive programme to keep children entertained, as well as workshops for all ages covering poetry, creative writing and storytelling, drawing and illustration”.
The festival will comply with all current COVID-19 regulations, and visitors will be asked to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination, or a negative PCR taken within 72 hours. Visit the festival website to buy tickets and get the full list of authors.
