The LitFest Team has hardly drawn breath and it is on with plans for 2013!

All of us were delighted with the success of our 2012 Festival. We thank you – our sponsors and the community – for your wholehearted support and enthusiasm.

Having a permanent home at Dar Al Adaab (The House of Literature) in the Al Fahidi Historic Area, Dubai has made an enormous, positive difference, and we have planned a host of activities and workshops for the autumn of 2012, in addition to our five day spectacular event in March 2013.

We are also blessed that the wonderful authors who have attended the Festival in the first four years have spread the word and let writers far and wide know that they can expect to have a great time at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.

A festival such as ours gives the audience a special opportunity to hear writers’ opinions live, up close and personal, to join in with their own views, never quite knowing where the debate will lead.

Uniquely, we have simultaneous translation in all sessions, opening doors and taking us across cultural borders. This makes an enormous difference, particularly in allowing non-Arabic speakers to hear Arab authors whose work may not have been translated. Every year I get to hear stories from people who have taken a chance on an author whose name may be unfamiliar but whose work sounded intriguing. I find that given the chance to learn about another culture or an unfamiliar topic, people will embrace it gladly, and this is one of the most rewarding aspects of the Festival.

Our festival-goers bring their enthusiasm for intelligent debate, helping to create a festival which is about so much more than just literature. It is hugely rewarding to be able to provide such an event in the region, and to have it enjoyed so much by such a diversity of writers and audiences.

For 2013, we have a large number of sessions planned, with a diverse range of topics covered. As our authors come from around the world, so too our audiences are very international, reflecting Dubai’s rich cultural mix. Expect to hear more about this as the year goes on...

It is invigorating, exciting, refreshing and definitely full of buzz!

Isobel Abulhoul
Festival Director

The next Emirates Airline Festival of Literature will be held 5-9 March 2013

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