The 18th Emirates Airline Festival of Literature runs from the 21st to the 27th of this month at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City. Over seven days, the festival offers a packed program full of stories, rich dialogues, and interactive activities, making it an ideal destination for literature enthusiasts and culture lovers. To showcase the richness and diversity of themes in this edition, the following list features a selection of sessions from the program's most prominent events. The session 'Bells of Cities: The Cultural Languages of Places' will bring together Ahmed Al-Mershi, Ahmed Al-Saqa, Dhi Rahmi, and Munir Al-Haik to discuss the hidden relationship between people and place. The session 'Twenty Years of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award' will revisit the key milestones that shaped the award's history. The poetry session 'Maxims of Poetry: In Love and Beyond' will feature poets Dhi Rahmi and Aloush Al-Suwaidi. The session 'Greatness upon Greatness, O Lady' celebrates the enduring legacy of the Orient, Umm Kulthum. The session 'Fragrance of the Desert: A Journey into the World of Perfumes' will take attendees on a journey to explore traditional Emirati perfumes. This will be followed by a session with Merna Al-Mahdi titled 'Who is the Killer? Noah of the Millennium's Investigations', a thrilling tale. Meanwhile, the session 'Arabian Nights: Poetry and Law' celebrates the diversity of poets' voices: Hassan Al-Najjar, Hanin Omar, Aloush Al-Suwaidi, Ali Al-Mazmi, and Maryam Al-Zarouni, who will present their poems in a vibrant dialogue with the law.
