EMIRATES ANNOUNCES ‘FESTIVAL OF LITERATURE’ FOR MARCH
(Posted 10th February 2014)
The InterContinental Hotel Dubai Festival City will be the venue for the upcoming Emirates’s Festival of Literature, which will take place in four weeks time from 04th to 08th or March. Patron of the annual event, which has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years, is His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.
Over 300 sessions, panel discussions, workshops and master classes will be available to visitors with sessions being conducted in Arabic, English and French.
The 2014 Festival’s main theme is Metamorphosis, one of the great themes of storytelling from the earliest days of the written word through to the present. Festival organizers have also confirmed that several favourite events from previous years will return, including Desert Stanzas, the Murder Mystery Dinner, the George Orwell Lecture, given this year by Jeremy Bowen, the Watani Debate, and the Quick Pitch with Luigi Bonomi.
New events for 2014 include Friday Rhythms, an evening of music and poetry featuring LiTTLe MACHiNe, Female Focus, a morning devoted to celebrating women’s achievements and exploring the challenges of modern society (men are definitely welcome) and Literary Idol, a cross between Pop Idol and Dragon’s Den, in which a panel of experts critique writers’ unpublished work, which will be read aloud by an actor. The organizers have reportedly also teamed up with the Dubai Food Festival to put on a greatly improved Cookery Strand of literary lunches, demonstrations and panels.
With the Literature Festival becoming larger every year have the organizers also put together themed guides for visitors to chose from under the category they are most interested in:
2014?s Arabic lineup
A Celebration of all Kinds of Fiction
Calligraphy
Cookery
Crime and Thriller
Economics and Business
French authors for 2014
Historians at Emirates LitFest
How to get published
Indian authors for 2014
Other worlds (fantasy)
Writing Life (biography and memoir)
‘Hello Tomorrow’ – if anyone ever needs a reason to fly to Dubai with Emirates, here is yet another one.
