The festival will run from January 29 to February 3, 2025, at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City. Leslie Pableo for The National
The festival will run from January 29 to February 3, 2025, at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City. Leslie Pableo for The National
The festival will run from January 29 to February 3, 2025, at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City. Leslie Pableo for The National
The festival will run from January 29 to February 3, 2025, at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City. Leslie Pableo for The National

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2025 line-up includes Nobel Prize-winning author and local talent


Maan Jalal
  • English
  • Arabic

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature will welcome award-winning international writers and speakers early next year, organisers have announced.

The annual gathering, which takes place from January 29 to February 3 at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City, features more than 150 events, including author talks, panel discussions and workshops.

Among the renowned names attending are American writer and physician Abraham Verghese. His 2023 novel The Covenant of Water, which tells the story of three generations of a Malayali family living in south-west India, was selected as part of Oprah's Book Club and was in The New York Times bestseller list for 37 weeks.

Tanzanian-British novelist and academic Abdulrazak Gurnah will also be in attendance. Gurnah, whose work deals with identity, displacement, colonialism and cultural hybridity, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021. To date, he has written 10 novels, including Paradise and By The Sea. The former was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the latter was longlisted.

Also attending the festival is Booker Prize-nominated Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma and Emmy Award-winning journalist Hala Gorani.

Tanzanian-born British novelist, academic and Nobel Prize in Literature recipient Abdulrazak Gurnah will be attending. AFP
Tanzanian-born British novelist, academic and Nobel Prize in Literature recipient Abdulrazak Gurnah will be attending. AFP

“As we navigate a world of uncertainty and change, the Emirates LitFest serves as a vital platform for dialogue, understanding, and reflection,” said festival director Ahlam Bolooki.

“Global conversations around identity and culture have never been more crucial, and we are honoured to welcome literary icons from across the globe whose works speak to the heart of these issues.

“Through our dynamic programme, sessions that inspire future generations and events that celebrate our shared experiences, we build a community based on empathy and understanding. Now, more than ever, we need stories that connect us to our shared humanity, and the Emirates LitFest is where those stories happen.”

The programme includes entertaining sessions for young readers. Jeff Kinney, author and illustrator of the popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, will be in attendance along with author and screenwriter Daniel Handler, who is also known as Lemony Snicket, creator of the books A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Jeff Kinney is the author of the popular series Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Getty Images
Jeff Kinney is the author of the popular series Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Getty Images

Influential illustrator Megan Hess will be speaking about the influence of colour in our daily lives throughout style history, while celebrated Palestinian chef and hotelier Fadi Kattan will discuss all things food.

A number of Arab authors will also be in attendance, including Algerian novelist and winner of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Literature, Waciny Laredj, and Emirati poet and author Khalid Albudoor.

This year’s Bil Emirati section of the festival, which celebrates the culture of the UAE, will bring together Emirati and international authors on the stage. The line-up will include Emirati poet Adel Khozam; artist and designer Asmaa Al Remithi; filmmaker Nahla Al Fahad and many more.

Annual sessions will include Desert Stanzas, where poets gather for a night of readings in the desert; LitFest After Hours, which includes a mix of performances, games, activities; weekend event LitFest Families, which has activities and entertainment for young readers; and Discovery Talks, a series of discussions with the authors which will include a talk by Laaleen Sukhera. This session will delve into the timeless work of Jane Austen on her 250th birthday anniversary celebration.

In numbers

- Number of children under five will fall from 681 million in 2017 to 401m in 2100

- Over-80s will rise from 141m in 2017 to 866m in 2100

- Nigeria will become the world’s second most populous country with 791m by 2100, behind India

- China will fall dramatically from a peak of 2.4 billion in 2024 to 732 million by 2100

- an average of 2.1 children per woman is required to sustain population growth

Traits of Chinese zodiac animals

Tiger:independent, successful, volatile
Rat:witty, creative, charming
Ox:diligent, perseverent, conservative
Rabbit:gracious, considerate, sensitive
Dragon:prosperous, brave, rash
Snake:calm, thoughtful, stubborn
Horse:faithful, energetic, carefree
Sheep:easy-going, peacemaker, curious
Monkey:family-orientated, clever, playful
Rooster:honest, confident, pompous
Dog:loyal, kind, perfectionist
Boar:loving, tolerant, indulgent   

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

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2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier. 

2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus

2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.

2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.

2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.

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Grand slam winners since July 2003

Who has won major titles since Wimbledon 2003 when Roger Federer won his first grand slam

Roger Federer 19 (8 Wimbledon, 5 Australian Open, 5 US Open, 1 French Open)

Rafael Nadal 16 (10 French Open, 3 US Open, 2 Wimbledon, 1 Australian Open)

Novak Djokovic 12 (6 Australian Open, 3 Wimbledon, 2 US Open, 1 French Open)

Andy Murray 3 (2 Wimbledon, 1 US Open)

Stan Wawrinka 3 (1 Australian Open, 1 French Open, 1 US Open)

Andy Roddick 1 (1 US Open) 

Gaston Gaudio 1 (1 French Open)

Marat Safin 1 (1 Australian Open)

Juan Martin del Potro 1 (1 US Open)

Marin Cilic 1 (1 US Open)

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Nepotism is the name of the game

Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad. 

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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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Updated: November 12, 2024, 8:20 AM`