The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature to introduce the Fresh Voices you will be hearing about for years to come
Discover the most interesting new writers and fresh perspectives on a range of topics at this year’s Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, which takes place from 1-9 March at the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City. Ahlam Bolooki, Festival Director, said: “The Festival has always championed new writing, and 2019 is no exception. We are proud to offer a platform to new writers, and to offer our visitors the chance to heard from some of the most interesting new writers of our time. Hear from the latest generation of talented authors who will be entertaining and educating us for years to come.”
Fabulous Fiction
Malachy Tallack is a writer, editor and singer-songwriter from Scotland. His first novel, The Valley at the Centre of the World has been met with widespread praise and awards for its portrayal of nature, community and island life. Award nominations are rare for new authors but another two who have found success with their first books are Hessa Al Muhairi, an Emirati author who won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2018 for her children’s book The Dinoraffe and Aziz Mohammed, a Saudi Arabian writer who has written poetry, short stories, film reviews and online blogs. The Critical Case of ‘K’ was his debut novel and it was shortlisted for the International Prize for the Arabic Fiction in 2018.
Brandy Scott’s career as a journalist has spanned national newspapers, numerous magazines and websites and Radio New Zealand’s flagship breakfast show. As well as making regular television appearances she is most known in Dubai as the co-host of The Business Breakfast on Dubai Eye 103.8. Not Bad People is her first novel, a compelling story about three Australian women whose impulsive decision to let off illegal Chinese lanterns sets in motion a series of life-changing events.
Real life experiences can often be the catalyst for a new writer’s work. Leo Carew’s passion, aside from writing, is exploration, which led him to spend a year living in a tent in the High Arctic. The expedition-inspired The Wolf, is his first novel in the Under the Northern Sky series. Ambrose Parry is the pen name for the wife and husband writing duo, Chris Brookmyre and his wife Marisa Haetzman, a consultant anaesthetist. Although Chris has many books under his own name, this is their first novel together. The Way of All Flesh is a gory historical crime novel set in Victorian Edinburgh and influenced by Haetzman’s medical experience. Adel Ali Mohammed Alsumaiti is a crime fiction writer with inside knowledge - he works as a police officer with Dubai Police, where he has over 25 years’ experience. Hear how his insights have influenced his first novel, The Legend’s Revenge.
Old for new…everyone knows the story of Aladdin… or do they? Since it was first added to The Arabian Nights in an eighteenth-century French publication, it has been interpreted in many ways, most often as a children’s tale of rags-to-riches. Translator Yasmine Seale gives a new slant to the old story in this translation and collaboration with Professor of Literature at NYU Abu Dhabi Paulo Lemos Horta.
There is also new poetry with first collections from Anuradha Vijayakrishnan, with The Who-Am-I Bird and Anis Chouchene who will be one of the star performers at the landmark poetry event, Desert Stanzas.
Memoir
Memoir is a rich seam for many writers and the Festival features some fascinating real life-stories. One of Australia’s most successful fashion designers, Alannah Hill, describes her journey of transformation from a joyless childhood to a dream-come-true career peak of love, loss and reinvention. Running away from home at the age of 16 with eight suitcases of clothes, her memoir Butterfly on a Pin charts the highs and lows of her unconventional life.
Former private secretary to Nelson Mandela, Zelda La Grange, is a white Afrikaner who grew up supporting apartheid in segregated South Africa. In her riveting session on her book Good Morning, Mr Mandela she explains how Mandela affected her life, and how she grew to respect the man she served for 19 years and came to call 'Khulu' or ‘grandfather’.
Hillary Clinton’s Director of Communications for the 2016 Presidential campaign, Jennifer Palmieri’s, first book is more of a leadership tool than a memoir. Using her insights, she hopes to empower future leaders. Hear her observations in Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World.
For the full list of authors, visit emirateslitfest.com/authors
