Two days to go until The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2017

The 2017 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature opens this Friday at the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City. The week-long festival is the Middle East’s largest celebration of the written and spoken word, bringing together people of all ages and backgrounds with authors and literary speakers from around the world.

On Thursday 9 March a talk on the 2017 International Prize for Arabic Fiction will be held at the festival, featuring Rabai Al Madhoun, Mohammad Rabie and Mansouar Ez Eldin. Rabai Al Madhoun’s Destinies: Concerto of the Holocaust and the Nakba won the 2016 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which Otared by Mohammad Rabie was shortlisted for. Mansoura Ez Eldin’s Beyond Paradise was shortlisted for IPAF in 2010.

The three will discuss what it takes to win literary prizes and the different approaches they take to writing powerful, memorable works. This event will be in Arabic, with simultaneous English translation.

Rabai Al Madhoun will also be teaching a Creative Masterclass on the Thursday, with students from various universities who have each received a copy of Destinies: Concerto of the Holocaust and the Nakba and a reading guide provided by the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. 

In the evening of Wednesday 8 March, founding IPAF trustee Omar Saif Ghobash will be discussing his new book Letters to a Young Muslim, which was published this month. Earlier that day he will speak on a panel titled ‘A Time for Tolerance’ alongside Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri and Reverend Andy Thompson.

The Festival is run with the patronage His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President & Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and in partnership with Emirates and the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture).

View the event programme at www.emirateslitfest.com and book your tickets today!