Emirates Airline Festival of Literature

The Emirates Literature Foundation (ELF), home of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, is a non-government, not-for-profit organization that nurtures a love of literature in the UAE and across the region through a program of varied cultural initiatives that support the four pillars of the writing community: readers, writers, publishers and librarians. It was established in 2013 by Royal Decree issued by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai. The Foundation’s year-round program of events promotes diversity and cultural expression. Key to this is the Foundation’s Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, now in its 13th year, bringing writers from all around the world in a program that also champions Emirati talent and Arabic writers. The Emirates Literature Foundation is continuously expanding its portfolio of events and initiatives to reflect and appeal to the UAE’s multi-national community. They include: • The School Librarian of the Year Award - honoring those individuals who make an exceptional impact on children’s lives through championing books and reading. • Education Program - Bringing children face-to-face with a book’s author is one of the best ways of making them want to read. To maximize the benefit of having an author present, ELF’s educations sessions were live-streamed to more than 99,000 students at the last festival. The writing, reading and poetry performance competitions get young people excited and keen to extend their creative skills. • Creative Writing Courses and Competitions encourage up and coming writers. The LitFest first novel prize has produced nine published authors in seven years ELF also organizes Business Days, Publishing Days, Translation Conferences and Book Clubs for children and adults. The Festival and Foundation initiatives are backed by a strong media campaign in Arabic and English within the GCC and the rest of the world, in addition to social media and podcasts covering a wide range of subjects. A new podcast, the Boundless Book club, has had hundreds of downloads and keeps book lovers up to speed with the team's recommendations. An Emirates Literature Foundation initiative, called ‘Literary Conversations Across Borders’, promoted international cultural understanding through the power of books and words. It used a digital platform to host Emirati writers and commentators in live discussions with high profile experts from around the world on a variety of critical topics. The eight events took place between May and July 2020. With the support of the UAE Office of Public and Cultural Diplomacy, it reached more than 9,000 people in 63 countries.