Zahra Lari. Photo: Courtesy of Emirates Airline Literature Festival
The Emirates Airline Literature Festival is set to return in 2024 for its 16th edition, bringing together a lineup of acclaimed authors and writers once again. Taking place from Wednesday, January 31 to February 6, the seven-day event at the Intercontinental, Dubai Festival City will host a number of exciting events for literary enthusiasts to partake in.
On the roster are renowned authors American poet, essayist, and playwright, Claudia Rankine, who won the 2015 Foreward Prize and the PEN Open Book Award; and father of the iPod and founder of Nest, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Tony Fadell, author of Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making. Making their regional debut, BookTok sensations Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Romantic Comedy, and Rebecca Yarros, author of Fourth Wing, will also be part of the festival.
Other names on the lineup include award-winning translator Anton Hur, best-known for his Korean to English translation of I Went to See My Father, Cursed Bunny and for his upcoming biography of K-pop sensation BTS; researcher and lecturer Francesca Cartier Brickell, direct descendant of the Cartier family, and the author of The Cartiers: The Untold Story of a Jewelry Dynasty; novelist Miral Al-Tahawy whose novel Tales from Town of Rising Sun was shortlisted for the 2023 International Prize for Arabic Fiction; award-winning poet and finalist of ‘Prince of Poets’ TV show, Ahmed Bakheet; Zahra Lari, first figure skater for the UAE and the region to compete on a global level, who will be launching children’s book Not Yet: The Story of an Unstoppable Skater at the Festival. Thomas Erikson, Lucy Hawking, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Saud Alsanousi, Ali Abu Al Reesh, and Dana Dajani will also be returning to the festival.
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As part of LitFest After Hours, the venue will welcome attendees of all ages and interests for a variety of performances, activities, and food, while Discovery Talks will see authors and speakers converge for a series of free-to-attend lectures on topics ranging from the Spiderverse to Chinese mythology to Arabic language and artificial intelligence.
“Storytelling is the way that we connect as human beings and how we make sense of the world around us,” says Ahlam Bolooki, CEO of Emirates Literature Foundation, managing director of ELF Publishing and festival director for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. “At its core, the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is a celebration of human connection through narratives that live and breathe in different mediums. We are thrilled to once again welcome authors, performers, thinkers and change makers hailing from a rich tapestry of disciplines that will open our minds, expand our horizons and leave an indelible mark on our journey through life. Join us.”
