Emirates Literature Foundation, home of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, one of the top literary festivals in the world and the biggest celebration of stories in the Middle East, is bringing some of the most compelling sessions from their 2022 edition to viewers’ fingertips via YouTube for free.
Panel sessions include “Global Leadership: Work, Family, and our Future,” with UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General Expo 2020 Dubai Reem Al-Hashimy and former CEO of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi.
There is also an out-of-this-world dialogue about the best scientific discovery of all times with YouTube content creator, Ahmed El-Ghandour, known as Da7ee7, head of the UAE astronaut program Salem Al-Marri, and professor and author Serhii Plokhy.
It is our mission to bring the joy of literature and literary conversations to everyone, and allow global audiences to enjoy the LitFest experience.
Ahlam Bolooki, director of Emirates Airline Festival of Literature
Viewers can catch Sunday Times bestselling author Dr. Rupy Aujla and cookbook author, presenter, entrepreneur, and social media influencer Zahra Abdalla, as they discuss modern ways of “Cooking the Classics.” East meets West where Lucinda Dickens Hawksley, prolific author and direct descendant of Charles Dickens; Daniel L. Newman, author and chair of Arabic studies at the University of Durham; and Karim Hauser, head of international relations at Spain’s Casa Árabe; reflect on the long history of globalization in context of art, literature, and food.
Viewers can watch four masters of the crime thriller genre — Felicia Yap, Lucy Foley, Mark Billingham and Polly Phillips — as they talk “Originality in Crime Fiction,” and enjoy “Between the Covers,” a riveting discussion with poet and novelist Noor Naga and editor Selma Dabbagh on erotic writing in Arabic literature.
Ahlam Bolooki, festival director, said: “We strive to make the literary landscape more inclusive and accessible to all by making some of the diverse and interesting conversations from the festival available online. It is our mission to bring the joy of literature and literary conversations to everyone, and allow global audiences to enjoy the LitFest experience.”
The foundation also shares in-depth conversations with writer and blogger Jenny Lawson, and Emirati movers and shakers Omar Saif Ghobash, the assistant minister for culture and public diplomacy at the UAE’s Foreign Ministry, and Khalaf Ahmad Al-Habtoor, founder and chairman of Al-Habtoor Group of Companies.
Poetry lovers can enjoy the world premiere of the multi-lingual, multi-genre collaboration of Emirati spoken word poet Dr. Afra Atiq with Colombian-American award-winning poet Carlos Andrés Gómez, and singer, songwriter and music producer Brent Shuttleworth.
