Message from the Festival Director

After ten months of busy preparations, we are very excited to announce that tickets for the 3^rd Emirates Airline Festival of Literature are now on sale!  This is our most packed Emirates Lit Fest programme yet.   We will see the welcome return of some of our most popular regular fixtures including crime and foodie panels, world-class one to one interviews with authors and inspirational and entertaining children’s sessions, but we will also be introducing lots of brand new sessions such as a not-to-be missed Literary Quiz, our first Literary Lunch, our first Orwell lecture and a new Festival Personality session which I am looking forward to chairing.  We are also delighted to announce even more workshops for aspiring authors, 25 Focus On sessions showcasing emerging authors and for the first time, sessions in a third language – French.   So please browse through some of the highlights we have detailed in today’s newsletter – and start purchasing tickets for your favourite events!

New Sessions and Strands

Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th March

•    Brand new multi-author Gala Evenings:  Tuesday’s Gala Evening stars the traveller extraordinaire Michael Palin in a one man show entitled Forty Years Without a Proper Job followed by an unmissable encounter with Nigeria’s foremost man of letters and first Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka. The following night’s Gala Evening will open with a rare opportunity to hear from one of the most respected writers of our time, poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist Margaret Atwood followed by four leading international poets - Simon Armitage, Nathalie Handal, Dha'en Shaheen and Benjamin Zephaniah.  Complementing the words will be musical performances by the Dubai Sinfonia orchestra.

Thursday 10th March

•    First Literary Lunch:  Emirates Lit Fest will join forces with Michelin starred chef Pierre Gagnaire to hold its first Literary Lunch.  Pierre will create a special Emirates Lit Fest menu at his Reflets restaurant at the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City.  This will be preceded by a cookery demonstration by Pierre himself.  Numbers for the lunch will be strictly limited to just 45 spaces.
•    Inaugural George Orwell Lecture: BBC journalist Gavin Esler will present a revealing insight into George Orwell as a prophet of the 21st Century.
•    Brand new strand: This year, the Festival is introducing 25 Focus On sessions.  These more interactive, intimate sessions will allow festival goers to get closer to their favourite authors.
•    New Calligraphy Workshops for adults and children:  The first of a series of new Calligraphy Workshops begins today.  There will also be free demonstrations throughout the festival.

Friday 11th March

•    Sessions in a third language:  French writers Elisabeth Horem and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt will speak in their native tongue in the festival’s very own ‘quartier francais’.
•    New ‘Masterclasses’ for budding writers: In addition to an expanding workshop programme, the festival is launching its first Masterclasses, which will be given by Tony Parsons, Roger McGough, Marina Lewycka, Louise Doughty, Mark Billingham and Morris Gleitzman.
•    First ever Literary Quiz:  British crime writer Mark Billingham will be the MC for the Festival’s firstLiterary Quiz.  Do you know your Amis from your Azzawi? We expect the Eclipse Bar to be jam-packed with Festival authors locked in friendly verbal combat.

Saturday 12th March

•    First ever ‘Festival Personality’ named:  The Festival has named the exceptional business man, philanthropist and champion of literacy, Juma al Majid, its first Festival Personality.  He will be interviewed by Festival Director, Isobel Abulhoul in this unique session.

Sessions back by popular demand

•    Once again, the festival will offer numerous opportunities to meet and listen to a literary prize-winner: among the extraordinary range of authors taking part we have winners of the Nobel, Pulitzer, Caine, Man Booker, Orange and Costa prizes.  The 2011 Festival will deliver in-depth interviews with many favourite authors including Bernard Cornwell, Lionel Shriver, China Mieville and Tony Parsons.
•    Continuing our commitment to bring festival-goers the best of contemporary Arabic literature, don’t miss the first and only chance to see the shortlisted International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) authors on stage together, prior to the announcement of the winner in March. 
•     Stand-alone talks by world–renowned thinkers are now a trademark of EmiratesLitFest and this year the festival brings you Edward de Bono, Think before it’s too late, why the world’s thinking is so poor; Greg Mortenson,  Moving Mountains;  Tony Buzan, Mind Maps for Business; Isobel Coleman,  How Women are Transforming the Middle East and Kate Adie, Embedded - to name just a few.
•    Once again leading academics and thinkers will get together to discuss topics of international interest – two of this year’s highlights will include: Translating the Qur’an: The Art of the Impossible with major Islamic scholar Muhammad A S Abdel Haleem, who will discuss how he translated what many Muslims feel is untranslatable; and A Panel on Compassion featuring Karen Armstrong (who set up the Charter for Compassion), Abraham Verghese and Professor Muhammad A S Abdel Haleem who will debate the challenge of practising ‘the Golden Rule’ in our daily lives.
•    Continuing the Festival’s tradition of playing tribute to a lost literary great, we will look back at the life and work of Naguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian Nobel Laureate - 2011 being the centenary of his birth. 
•    Another entertaining and inspiring collection of Main Programme poetry events, will include a lively discussion on The Power of Poetry, led by Nathalie Handal, Poetry for all the family with Roger McGough, an evening of Arabic poetry readings, and a dynamic group of international poets in performance including Simon Armitage, Yang Lian, Joumana Haddad and Benjamin Zephaniah.   This is in addition to the poetry event which will take place during the second Gala Evening.
•    The festival’s much-loved Children’s programme returns, kicking off on Friday 11th with a cracking session by UK Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne, followed by events with Emily Gravett, Morris Gleitzman, Charlie Higson and Eoin Colfer. 
•    The popular Fringe Parade made up of schoolchildren and performers from arts & cultural groups – accompanied by camels and costumed characters, will return on Saturday 12th.  This will be followed by a session by the Arabic children’s author and illustrator team, Hooda Shawa and Hassan Musa.  Following hot on their heels will be Michael Morpurgo, Gillian Cross, Philip Ardagh and Francesca Simon.
•    The foodie panel is a perennial favourite and this year brings together Madhur Jaffrey, Ariana Bundy and Suzanne Husseini for a wide ranging discussion of everything foodie.  Plus there will be 3 cookery demonstrations will take place with Madhur Jaffrey, Suzanne Husseini and Pierre Gagnaire sharing their culinary secrets.
•    The ever popular Book Group session is back and this year will feature four of the authors featured in the Festival Reading Group which has been meeting regularly since November 2010.   Abraham Verghese, Leila Aboulela, Marina Lewycka and Lionel Shriver who will about their work and how it feels to be authors of ‘’book-group books’’. 
•    Translation remains as topical as ever and a session entitled Literary Gatekeepers will debate just how decisions are made regarding which titles are translated.  This session will featuring translator Anthony Calderbank and Saudi writer Abdo Khal among others.
•    Continuing the Festival’s tradition of celebrating the written world in all its forms – the Festival bringsFrom Script to Screen with acclaimed City of Life director Ali Mostafa.  
•    Following in the footsteps of Sir Ranulph Fiennes in 2009 and William Dalrymple in 2010, the 2011 Festival will welcome another real life adventurer – Charley Boorman. In this entertaining evening packed with insights and anecdotes, Charley – accompanied by a huge screen depicting images from his life and most recent travels – will show why he is the epitome of the modern adventurer: cheeky, energetic and every bit the family man.
•    Once again, the Festival brings audiences cutting edge discussion of social media with two Digital Revolution events – one looking at the impact of social media on writers and their readers - featuring appearances from noted twitterer Margaret Atwood and blogger Ghada Abdel Aal - and the second looking at the future of the book and how we read.