The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, the biggest celebration of stories in the Arab region and one of the top literary festivals in the world, will be celebrating its 15th anniversary from 1-6 February 2023 with a starry mix of Hollywood celebrity, award-winning authors and experts leading the field on matters shaping the world today.
Bringing together more than 250 of the world’s greatest writers and thinkers in more than 300 events, the programme is bursting with big names, many of whom are returning to Dubai as “old friends”, reflecting this year’s festival theme.
Top author names were revealed in a ceremony at the Mohamed Bin Rashid Library. The line-up includes Brian Cox, Emmy-award winning patriarch of the hit streaming series Succession; master-storytellers Cecelia Ahern, Mohsin Hamid, Alexander McCall Smith and Jeffrey Archer; Indian politician Shashi Tharoor; notable Bahraini poet Qasim Haddad; and Emirati author and poet Maisoon Saker Al Qassimi, 2022 winner of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.
For the first time ever, the Festival has welcomed a guest curator, poet and author Lemn Sissay, who brings his own inimitable flair to selected events.
The eclectic programme is believed to be one of the most diverse line-ups of any literary event in the world, representing almost 50 different nationalities including a strong representation of Filipino writers.
Celebrating 15 years of enthralling storytelling, the Festival will take place at the Intercontinental Festival City, and across the Creek at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library – with the two venues connected by an abra service across the water.
Ahlam Bolooki, Festival Director for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature said,
“We are overjoyed at the amazing line-up we have secured to celebrate our 15th Year, welcoming old friends and new. We are so proud of what has been achieved in that time. We have welcomed almost 1700 writers to Dubai, who have transported us to new worlds and different times and introduced us to characters we might not have ordinarily met. Through discussion, dialogue, and stories, together we have made sense of the world, learnt about ourselves and each other, connected with and appreciated others’ viewpoints. We have ignited a passion for reading and words in the many thousands of children who have been inspired by meeting an author.”
News Source: Emirates News Agency