WELCOME BACK TO ADIBF

Thank you for joining us in our annual celebration of all things literary! For its 22nd edition, the book fair offers you once again a wide selection of cultural events: discussions about books on sociology, cinema, travel and the camel; presentations of graphic novels, theater plays, cook books and science books; special introductions to an Atlas and a poetry encyclopedia; and plenty of childrens literature. We also invite you to attend a writing workshop, a poetry recital and Open Mic sessions not forgetting of course numerous cooking demonstrations at our very popular Show Kitchen! We are proud of our ongoing partnership with the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, which allows us to bring you exclusive contact with some of the best authors and editors on the Arab literary scene and publishing industry. In this spirit, and for the first time, we have created a programme called Signatures for which we have invited writers identified by their publishers as authors of signal and significant books to have appeared during the past twelve months. They will be joined by a great number of well-established writers and talented newcomers from all over the Arab world. This is an international fair, therefore and as always we open our doors to foreign literature, welcoming authors from Sweden, India, France, Germany and the USA. This year, our guest of honor is the United Kingdom, and we worked hand in hand with British Council to give you the opportunity to hear and meet representatives of the vibrant British literary scene. British Council has also organized the Olympians photography exhibit on show at ADNEC, as well as many exciting workshops that we encourage you to attend during the Book Fair (see schedule on page 44).

We look very much forward to welcoming you to another exciting, rich and interactive book fair!

PROGRAMME LOCATIONS

Discussion Sofa

| Hall 12K50 |

This is the place to meet recipients of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, as well as the winners of other competitions organized by ADIBF and its partners. It is also here that we will have panel discussions with authors from around the world, academics, journalists, essayists and political analysts. But come here too for some one-on-one interviews with famous writers!

The Tent

| Hall 10K06 |

Welcome to our new venue! This is inspired by the traditional majlis with a twist In a less formal setting propitious to a relaxed and unintimidating atmosphere, the public is invited to meet authors, hear poetry recitals, take part in writing workshops and open mic sessions. This is also the place for the younger members of our audience to listen to story-telling.

Signatures and Authors Corner | Hall 12E52 |

We will host the book-signing sessions of all our guests from the Signatures programme; this venue is also opened to authors not featured in the cultural programme but wishing to sign copies of their books.

Show Kitchen

| Hall 10J50 |

In the convivial atmosphere of a fully appointed kitchen, you are invited to enjoy cooking demonstrations by chefs and amateur cooks, and to attend sessions run by food specialists and nutritionists. Please refer to the Show Kitchen brochure for the schedule: a mouth-watering programme!
2

FOREWORD BY DOMINIC JERMEY, HER MAJESTYS AMBASSADOR TO THE UAE

I am delighted that the UK is guest of honour for Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2012. At a time of uncertainty and change in the region and the wider world, the opportunity for UK authors and publishers to make connections and form new partnerships has never been more necessary. The UK has the oldest publishing industry in the world, with publishing companies acting as key players in the information age. The UK, with 120,000 new books published every year, exports more than any other publishing industry worldwide and, according to UKTI, the UAE is the UKs 13th largest export market, making it the largest market in the Middle East. The UK focus activities within ADBIF 2012s cultural programme brings together UK authors with their counterparts in the UAE and the region, recognising the power of literature and its impact on the world as a window to greater cultural understanding. The year 2012 marks the bicentenary of the UKs most prolific and influential novelists: Charles Dickens. British Council is working with over fifty countries to coordinate an exciting range of educational and cultural events of Dickens 2012, with Sketches by Boz competition and Dickens on Film screenings in the UAE.

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A lesson in tolerance
In his vibrantly written new book, Brian VanDeMark takes an in-depth look at the history of the American University of Beirut and its complex and sometimes troubled relationship with the region, writes Joan Oleck
B Books about major US universit ties are typically heavy coffee-table a affairs, with colourful photos of g grinning football players, hoary p professors and hand-holding coup ples, posed appealingly by campus l landmarks on glorious spring aftern noons. American Sheikhs: Two Famil lies, Four Generations, and the Story o of Americas Inuence in the Middle E East, however, is none of that. Instead, the US Naval Academy h historian Brian VanDeMark, whose p previous memoir of the former US d defence secretary Robert McNamar ra, was a bestseller, has focused his n new book on the American University of Beirut (AUB), while pursuing a much broader goal. Specifically, VanDeMark makes A AUB a kind of stand-in for Washingt tons relationship with the Middle E East: how the US got into the region i in the rst place and what its done t there since both good and bad. The story of AUB is also a metaphor f for something bigger and more i important, VanDeMarek writes. Enduring themes of American m mission, American nationalism, A Americas encounter with imperia alistic politics, American idealism a and American frustration as a great p power in the region have all played o out in vivid and dramatic detail. AUB is the story of two families, the B Blisses and the Dodges, whose descendants controlled AUB for four g generations. Its an unfamiliar story, V VanDeMark adds, because it doesnt c conform to the prevailing narratives o of oil, Israel and security. building and hard work were other major tenets expected of the colleges all-male students who attended classes in an Islamic-style property, built atop a headland on Beiruts outskirts, with glorious views of St Georges Bay. Just as AUBs architecture honoured Arab tradition, so too did its educational philosophy, which blended Islamic culture with modern concepts from the West. The students, their families, and local leaders admired this approach enough to rapidly fill AUBs ranks. Mostly they admired its founder, the Rev Daniel Bliss, whod come to them from America. Bliss, whod had a poor upbringing in rural Ohio, was a strait-laced Christian missionary whose original official intent was to civilise the populace through compassionate Christian service. But Bliss soon realised that proselytising Muslims was a bad idea because it was antithetical to Islamic culture. Converting Eastern Christians was equally illadvised because those Christians Maronists and Orthodox Greeks already considered their American brothers arrogant. That impression was deserved: Protestant missionaries went abroad in those days ingrained with notions of their own superiority; and westerners impression of Arabs, gleaned from The Arabian Nights, was as desert nomads who lived in an exotic and faraway world of sand dunes, camels and harems. The term Middle East held captive by Hizbollah for a year in 1982 and his successor, Malcolm Kerr, was assassinated in 1984. US marines and soldiers took up residence in Beirut a terrorist bombing in 1983 killed 241 of them. Then came the rst Gulf War in 1991 followed by the September 11 attacks, and in turn by the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon in retaliation for Hizbollah rocket attacks against its citizens. The new generation of Middle Eastern students at AUB and newer institutions such as the American University of Kuwait, Education City in Qatar, and the American University of Cairo objected to many things in American policy, an Arab educator once remarked, except for one thing: American-style education. So what is an American-style education worth today? American Sheikhs could have been a dry academic tome, but VanDeMarks vibrant writing and in-depth reporting make AUBs story an allegory about what it takes to calm ethnic and religious tensions. At AUB, he writes, Arabs and Jews and Americans and Muslims became humanly familiar to each other through dialogue and learnt tolerance, and therefore politically plausible partners to each other. These components, VanDeMark adds, are the most powerful and enduring antidotes to extremism of any kind words worth thinking about too as more and more USlinked institutions, from New York University-Abu Dhabi to the American University of Sharjah, take root and ower in the UAE and across the Middle East. Joan Oleck is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, New York.

books

this weeks essential reading

Adonis: a life in writing by Maya Jaggi, The Guardian

Im against Assad ... and against the Islamist opposition, because I dont want to ght one despotism for the sake of another, states the poet

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related reads =
College days: more on AUB

Under siege
Undisturbed for centuries, the traditional ways of the Jarawa tribe on South Andaman are being put at risk by scurrilous tour operators keen to exploit their age-old existence r4

That They May Have Life

Stephen B L Penrose Jr First published in 1941 to mark AUBs 75th anniversary, Penroses book resurfaced in paperback last year. The author notes in his introduction that the uni has a penchant for anniversaries in the midst of [world] war.

The American University of Beirut was established as an alternative to Christian evangelism, which was antithetical to Islamic culture. Joseph Barrak / AFP

American Sheikhs
Brian VanDeMark Promotheus Books Dh108

Indeed, the lack of focus on those themes is actually refreshing. With American Sheikhs we learn how, as early as 1866, the newly founded Syrian Protestant College in Beirut offered the Arab world not just an exceptional faculty but something relatively new among the regions institutions of higher learning: free intellectual enquiry. Its faculty did not merely ll Arab students heads with facts, VanDeMark writes of AUB. It taught them how to organise and interpret facts. Character-

wasnt even popular until 1900; in Blisss day, the region was simply the Orient. Bliss meant to have an impact there. Having gained a handle on local language and customs, he set out to change Middle Eastern society from within, by education, rather than from without, through politics. Evangelism should give way to education, Bliss believed. His ally in this project wasnt so much Americas missionary board, which oversaw his work, as a wealthy American businessman (and religious Puritan), William Dodge, who helped Bliss beat the Jesuits who also planned a college in Beirut and get AUB up and running. Word spread that this new college was the best in the Middle East, and power-

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From page 158 A terrible wind was gathering force. AUB had always been an icon of the US in the Middle East. Now that icon had become a target for those who hated America

ful leaders from multiple nations quickly enrolled their sons. By 1909, AUB had grown to 1,000 students; Blisss middle son Howard inherited the presidency and created a melting pot on campus amid a city that had grown into a major commercial and cultural centre. Meanwhile, local Arabs had begun to forge a sense of identity separate from their Turkish and French masters; VanDeMark posits that AUBs environment of free thought helped give birth to Arab nationalism. That movement grew stronger aff ter the First World War, when Britain and France notoriously split the region (with former Ottoman-controlled Lebanon and Syria going to France), and when Britains Balfour Declaration pledged support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Paris Peace Conference swiftly dismissed US President Woodrow Wil-

sons call for self-determination in the region. Meanwhile, a different kind of challenge resulted from the arrival of modernity in the 1920s. But Bayard Dodge, who had married Blisss daughter and become AUBs president in 1923, responded, expanding the universitys curriculum in Arabic language and culture and melding together Arab and Jewish students in the dorms and on sports teams. A young Palestinian student confessed that some of his best friends were Jews, but: as soon as we get back to Jerusalem, I cant allow myself to be seen speaking with them. In 1924 AUB even admitted its first woman: she wore two veils and attended class with her husband in tow. Between 1920 and 1940, enrolment doubled again, to 2,000; womens numbers also increased, and men and women openly socialised.

Then came the Second World War, introducing, for the rst time, a chill between Arabs and the West. The US had become a net importer of oil for the rst time and later eyed AUB as an asset in the Cold War. Although Time magazine in 1948 said of Bayard Dodge that no other American had done as much to win and keep goodwill for the US in the Near East, those living in the region werent so sure. Things hardly improved when 14,000 US marines landed in Lebanon in 1958, in response to a coup in Iraq, and when Tapline, a 2,000km Saudi-American pipeline from the Arabian Gulf, was built in that decade right through Lebanon. The Arab-Israeli war of 1967 with the US supporting Israel caused tensions to worsen further; AUBs Jewish enrolment fell to zero. Newsweek sarcastically tagged AUB Guerrilla U: Where the cam-

pus formerly had supplied Middle Eastern countries with presidents, prime ministers, doctors and ambassadors, now it was producing hijackers and guerrillas, the magazine said. Certainly, Arab students viewed AUB as a symbol of imperialism and hypocrisy, and such views frustrated Dodge, who futilely tried to bring the campuss melting pot back together. Shortly before his death in 1972, he said, It is truer than ever before that history is a race between education and catastrophe. His words predicted the subsequent years, as the new disillusionment with secularism, together with surging Palestinian nationalism, pushed Lebanons Maronite Phalangist minority into a terrorist act that initiated civil war. USbacked AUB became a bombing target of terrorists, and there was more: president David Dodge was

The American University of Beirut

Betty S Anderson Sub-titled Arab Nationalism and Liberal Education, Andersons scholarly text is another history of AUB, [but] only one of the many stories that can be told.

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Painting over the cracks

After rising through the ranks of South Africas ANC party, Julius Malema now faces ruin. But what does his expected expulsion from political life say about the state of a nation and, indeed, its ruling elite? r4

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28 March
Wednesday

15:00 16:00
The Debut of the Poetry Encyclopedia
An introduction to the Poetry Encyclopedia, and a glimpse into some of the most important sources of Arabic poetry to date. Speaker: Zuhair Ahmed Zaza (editor) Arabic-English l Venue: The Tent

16:00 17:00
Interview with the Winner of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Cultural Personality of the Year
Brought to you by the Sheikh Zayed Book Award Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

16:15 17:15
Meet Marina Lewycka
Marina Lewycka is a British novelist of Ukrainian origins, born in 1946 in a refugee camp in Kiel, Germany. Her family subsequently moved to England. She graduated from Keele University in 1968 with degrees in English and Philosophy and from the University of York with a degree in English Literature in 1969. Ms. Lewyckas debut novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, which has sold more than a million copies in the UK alone, won the 2005 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic writing at the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts, the 20056/ Waverton Good Read Award, and the 2005 Saga Award for Wit; it was long-listed for the 2005 Man Booker Prize and short-listed for the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction. It has been translated into over twenty-nine languages. Her second novel, Two Caravans (March 2007, published under the title Strawberry Fields in North America) was shortlisted for the 2008 Orwell Prize for political writing. Ms. Lewyckas third novel We Are All Made of Glue was released in July 2009. She lives in Sheffield, Yorkshire, and works part-time at Sheffield Hallam University. Hosts: Jody Ballard and Seamus Gallagher Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

17:30 18:30
Meet Susan Abulhawa
Susan Abulhawa was born to refugees of the Six Day War of 1967, during which her familys land was seized and Israel captured what remained of Palestine, including Jerusalem. She moved to the United States as a teenager, eventually earning a degree in biomedical science and establishing a career in medical science. In July 2001, Susan Abulhawa founded Playgrounds for Palestine, a childrens organization dedicated to upholding the right to play for Palestinian children. Mornings in Jenin is her first novel and is being published in nineteen countries. She lives in Pennsylvania with her daughter. Host: Fatima Al Beloushi Brought to you by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

17:30 18:30
Understanding and interpreting culture and society through literature With Tim Mackintosh-Smith (travel writer), Tishani Doshi (poet), and Marina Lewycka (novelist) Host: Anita Sethi Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

Peering through a Window

18:45 19:15
Poetry Reading: Ibrahim Nasrallah
Ibrahim Nasrallah is a writer, poet, photographer, painter, and film critic, born in Jordan in 1954. His family had been uprooted from its homeland in Palestine in 1948, and he grew up in Ammans Alwehdat refugee camp. Trained as a teacher, he started his career in the Saudi desert; he reflected on this bitter experience in his first novel Prairies of Fever, which was chosen by the Guardian in 2010 as one of the ten best books to portray the Arab World. After returning to Amman, and while working as a journalist, Nasrallah continued to write poetry and fiction. To date, he has published fourteen collections of poetry and fourteen novels and has received several prizes, including the Al-Uweis Literary Award for Arabic poetry in 1997. He is the author of The Palestinian Comedy, a series of seven novels covering a period of 250 years of modern Palestinian history. His novel The Time of White Horses was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008 and many of his titles have been translated into various languages. Arabic l Venue: The Tent Mr. Nasrallah will sign his books at the Signatures Corner from 19:30 20:30.

Wednesday

18:45 19:45
Meet Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde is a British novelist born in 1961. His work has been described as fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, and crimeand is often a mixture of all four. His first novel The Eyre Affair was published in 2001 and follows the adventures of his heroine Thursday Next as she attempts to discover who has kidnapped Jane Eyre from the Charlotte Bront novel. A New York Times bestseller and described as an example of silly books for smart people, it was followed by five sequels. The seventh book is due to be published in spring 2012. Fforde is also engaged in writing three other series: the Nursery Crime series, with The Big Over Easy (2005) and The Fourth Bear (2006); the Shades of Grey series (2009); and a fourth series written for young adults, with The Last Dragonslayer (2010) and its sequel, The Song of the Quarkbeast (2011). In 2004, his novel The Well of Lost Plots won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction. He lives and works in Wales. Host: Tahira Yaqoob Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

19:30 20:30
Meet Tishani Doshi
Tishani Doshi is an award-winning poet and dancer of Welsh-Gujarati descent, born in Madras, India, in 1975. She received her masters degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, and then worked in London in advertising before returning to India in 2001 to join the choreographer Chandralekha, with whom she has performed on many international stages. She has written about her many travels in newspapers such as the Guardian, the International Herald Tribune, The Hindu, and The National. She received an Eric Gregory Award for poetry in 2001. In 2006, she won the All-India Poetry Competition, and her book of poems, Countries of the Body, won the Forward Prize for best first collection. Her first novel, The Pleasure Seekers, was published to critical acclaim in 2010, and has been translated into several languages. Doshi divides her time between Cheyyur, Tamil Nadu, and elsewhere. Her new book of poems is called Everything Begins Elsewhere. Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

19:30 20:30
Ibrahim Nasrallah
Book-signing Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: The Signatures Corner

20:00 21:00
The nominees are:

Meet the Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2012

Nasser Iraq (nominated for The Unemployed) graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo University, in 1984. He has worked in cultural journalism in Egypt and co-founded the Dubai AlThaqafiya magazine, where he has been managing editor since 2004. He has published a number of books, including: A History of Journalistic Art in Egypt (2002), which won the Ahmad Bahaa al-Din Prize in its first year; Times of the Dust (2006); From the Excess of Love (2008); The Green and the Damaged (2009); and The Unemployed (2011). He currently works as Cultural and Media Coordinator for the Foundation of Culture and Science Symposium in Dubai. Bashir Mufti (nominated for Toy of Fire) is a writer and journalist, born in 1969 in Algiers, Algeria. He has published a number of short story collections and novels, including: Archipelago of Flies (2000); Witness of the Darkness (2002); Perfumes of the Mirage (2005); Trees of the Resurrection (2007); and Maps of Nightly Passion (2009). Some of his works have been translated into French. He also publishes frequent articles in the Arabic press, and he works in Algerian television as assistant producer of the cultural program Maqamat. Jabbour Al Douaihy (nominated for The Vagrant) was born in Zgharta, in northern Lebanon, in 1949. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Sorbonne and teaches French literature at the University of Lebanon. To date, he has published seven works of fiction, including novels, short stories, and childrens books. His novel June Rain was short-listed for the inaugural IPAF in 2008, and will be published in English by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing in October 2012. Rabee Jaber (nominated for The Druze of Belgrade) is a Lebanese novelist and journalist, born in Beirut in 1972. He has served as editor of Afaq, the weekly cultural supplement of Al-Hayat newspaper, since 2001. His first novel, Master of Darkness, won the Critics Choice Prize in 1992. He has since written

Wednesday
sixteen novels, including: Black Tea; The Last House; Yusuf the Englishman; The Journey of the Granadan (published in German in 2005); Berytus: A City Beneath the Earth (published in French by Gallimard in 2009); and America, which was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2010. Ezzedine Choukri Fishere (nominated for Embrace on the Brooklyn Bridge) is an Egyptian writer and diplomat. Born in Kuwait in 1966, he grew up in Egypt and graduated from Cairo University in 1987 with a B.A. in Political Science. After graduation, he attended a number of universities in France and Canada and attained an International Diploma in Administration from the National School of Administration, Paris (199092). He went on to earn a masters degree in International Relations from Ottawa University (199295) and a doctorate in Political Science from Montreal University (199398). He currently teaches political science at the American University in Cairo, and also lectures at a number of other universities. In addition, he writes political articles for several Arabic, English, and French periodicals and newspapers. Habib Selmi (nominated for Women of al-Basatin) was born in al-Ala, Tunisia, in 1951. He has published eight novels and two collections of short stories. He has had stories translated into English, Norwegian, Hebrew, and French, and his novels have been translated into English, French, German, and Italian. His first novel, Jabal al-anz (Goat Mountain), and Ushashaqq Baya (Bayas Lovers) were both published in French translation, in 1999 and 2003. His other novels include Surat badawi mayyit (Picture of a Dead Bedouin), 1990; Matahat al-raml (Sand Labyrinth), 1994; Hufar dafia (Warm Pits), 1999; and Asrar Abdallah (Abdallahs Secrets), 2004. His novel The Scents of Marie-Claire was short-listed for the IPAF in 2009. An English translation of the book was published by the American University in Cairo Press in 2010. Habib Selmi has lived in Paris since 1985. Host: Dr Maan Al Taie Brought to you by the International Prize for Arabic Fiction Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

10

29 March
Thursday

10:00 11:00
A session for parents, teachers, and librarians: get tips on how to encourage children to read!

Love Reading!

Speakers:

Philip Ardagh, whose very first Grubtown Tale won him the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, is author of numerous books including the award-winning Eddie Dickens adventures, currently available in over thirty languages. He wrote BBC radios first truly interactive radio drama, collaborated with Sir Paul McCartney on his first childrens book, and is a regularly irregular reviewer of childrens books for the Guardian. Married with a son, he divides his time between Tunbridge Wells and Grubtown, where he cultivates an impressive beard. Samar Mahfouz Barraj is a Lebanese teacher and childrens books author. She holds a B.A. and a Teaching Diploma from the American University of Beirut. She is married and has two daughters. She published her first book Lam akun aqsad (I Didnt Mean It) in 2007, followed by twenty-nine other titles, four of which were long-listed and short-listed for the Etisalat Award for Arabic Childrens Literature in 2010 and 2011. Ms. Barraj has written poems and songs for children, worked for educational publishers, and translated twenty-three childrens books into Arabic from French, English, and Italian. She also runs workshops for teachers about library activities and how to make learning Arabic fun. Priscilla Baily has worked as a Reader/Audience Development Officer for over ten years, promoting books and reading in libraries. She also served as a trainer for The Reading Agency, where she organized various regional and national public library-based initiatives in the UK. She is passionate about libraries role in promoting the pleasure of reading to the widest possible audience. Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

11

Thursday

10:30 11:30
Taghreed Najjar Reads to Children
Taghreed Najjar is the author of forty-six Arabic books for children aged 312, among them Who Hid the Eid Lamb, which was translated into English and published in World Literature Today in January 2005. Some of her other stories have been translated and published in Chinese and French magazines. An animated version of her book al-Ghoul (The Monster) was featured as a segment on Palestinian Sesame Street in 2003. One of her most critically acclaimed works is the Halazone Series (ten books illustrated by the well-known Syrian artist Lujaina Al Aseel). The stories deal with everyday childhood issues. Several of Taghreed Najjars books have been adopted as supplementary reading in schools all over the Arab world. Recently, Ms. Najjar compiled and produced a collection of Arabic nursery rhymes in book and digital form, and two of her books have been turned into apps. She is the founder and CEO of Al Salwa Publishing House. Arabic l Venue: The Tent

12:00 13:00
Taghreed Najjar
Book-signing Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

12:00 13:00
Tales from around the World
A collection of stories compiled by the Diplomatic Group for the Spouses of Ambassadors UAE English l Venue: The Tent

12:15 13:15
A discussion on how the idea of home affects writing With Sally Butcher (cookbook writer), Tim Mackintosh-Smith (travel writer), Tishani Doshi (poet), and Susan Abulhawa (novelist) Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

...Where the Heart Is

12

13:30 14:30
Abdel Bari Atwan
Born in a Palestinian refugee camp during the early years of the Israeli occupation, Abdel Bari Atwan spent his childhood in Palestine, before later studying media and journalism at Cairo University and politics in London. One of the worlds leading experts on current affairs in the Middle East, Atwan is a media consultant to the BBC, CNN, and other networks, and a contributor to leading newspapers and magazines such as the Guardian, The Times, The Economist and Newsweek, as well as various Arabic language publications. He is the author of The Secret History of Al-Qaida and A Country of Words (Saqi, 2006 and 2008), and has published numerous studies on Middle East affairs. Host: Achraf El Bahi Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa Mr. Atwan will sign his books at the Signatures Corner on Friday, 30 March from 17:00 18:00.

13:30 14:30
Christophe Blain
Graphic novel author

Brought to you by Institut Franais UAE l Venue: The Tent

15:00 16:00
Samar Barraj Reads to Children
Samar Mahfouz Barraj is a Lebanese teacher and childrens books author. She holds a B.A. and a Teaching Diploma from the American University of Beirut. She is married and has two daughters. She published her first book Lam akun aqsad (I Didnt Mean It) in 2007, followed by twenty-nine other titles, four of which were long-listed and short-listed for the Etisalat Award for Arabic Childrens Literature in 2010 and 2011. Ms. Barraj has written poems and songs for children, worked for educational publishers, and translated twentythree childrens books into Arabic from French, English, and Italian. She also runs workshops for teachers about library activities and how to make learning Arabic fun. Arabic-English l Venue: The Tent Followed by a book-signing at the Signatures Corner from 16:30 17:30

13

Thursday

16:00 17:00
Al-Karmel al-Jadid of Hassan Khader
A new look for a Palestinian cultural landmark Hassan Khader, born in 1953, is a Palestinian writer and literary critic and is chief editor of the literary journal Al-Karmel, which is published in Ramallah, Amman, and as of recently, Cairo. His most well-known works include Wanderland, 2007; Ard al-ghazallah (Land of the Deer), 2003; and Hawyat al-akhar (Identity of the Other), 1997. He has studied English literature and has translated many books into Arabic, including The Disenchantment of the Orient by Gil Eyal (2009). In 1997, he was awarded the Palestinian Prize for Literature and Art. Host: Kadhem Jihad Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

16:15 17:15
ILYA, Illustrator
ILYA is the penname of Ed Hillyer, a comic strip writer, artist, and editor. His works have been published by Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse in the United States, Kodansha in Japan, and numerous independent companies worldwide. His books include Its Dark in London (new edition for 2012 from Self Made Hero) and the award-winning graphic novel series The End of the Century Club, as well as a debut prose novel, The Clay Dreaming (Myriad Editions, 2010). His clients have included the BBC, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the newspapers The Times and the Guardian. For 2012, hes been collaborating, so far, with both Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens. He also designs and teaches workshops and courses on the art of comics and manga for colleges, galleries, libraries, and schools, across the UK as well as abroad. Brought to you by British Council l Arabic-English l Venue: The Tent

16:30 17:30
Samar Barraj
Book-signing Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

14

17:30 - 18:30
Kirsten Boie on writing for teenagers
New Books for Emirati Teens Kirsten Boie will conduct a workshop for talented Emirati authors of teen novels, where she will talk about the challenges of writing for a teenage audience and will read from her bestselling novel Alhambra (translated into Arabic in 2011). She looks forward to meeting teenage readers from the UAE, Germany, and elsewhere! Kirsten Boie is one of Germanys best-known authors of childrens and young adult books. Born in Hamburg in 1950, she holds a doctorate in Literary Studies from Hamburg University. She worked as a teacher until the adoption of her first child, when she turned to writing for children. She has published one hundred books to date, many of them translated into other languages. She has received several major German and European childrens book awards and has been decorated with the German Federal Cross of Merit First Class. Brought to you by the Goethe-Institut Gulf Region Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

17:30 18:30
On Travel Writing With Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Winner of the 1998 Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Prize for travel literature for his book Yemen, Tim has since devoted himself to retracing the fourteenthcentury travels of Ibn Battutah across three continents. In addition to a trilogy of travel books and a BBC television series, his project also resulted in his editing Ibn Battutahs own Travels. Tim has lectured on Arabic travel literature at Harvard University and the Royal Geographical Society, London, and was historical consultant for the film Journey to Mecca. He contributed the entry on Ibn Battutah to the new edition of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. The third book of his Ibn Battutah trilogy, Landfalls, won him the 2010 Oldie Best Travel Writer award. In December 2010, he was awarded the Ibn Battutah Prize of Honour by the Arab Centre for Geographical Literature. More recently, Newsweek magazine listed him as one of the twelve finest travel writers of the past hundred years. Tim has an M.A. in Oriental Studies from Oxford University. He has translated extensively from Arabic and writes regularly for many publications. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, and a former Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in the University of Durham. Host: Aisha Bilkhair Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

15

Thursday

18:45 19:45
Meet Philip Ardagh
Philip Ardagh, whose very first Grubtown Tale won him the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, is author of numerous books including the award-winning Eddie Dickens adventures, currently available in over thirty languages. He wrote BBC radios first truly interactive radio drama, collaborated with Sir Paul McCartney on his first childrens book, and is a regularly irregular reviewer of childrens books for the Guardian. Married with a son, he divides his time between Tunbridge Wells and Grubtown, where he cultivates an impressive beard. Host: Nick March Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

19:00 20:00
Conversation with Ibrahim Nasrallah
Ibrahim Nasrallah is a writer, poet, photographer, painter, and film critic, born in Jordan in 1954. His family had been uprooted from its homeland in Palestine in 1948, and he grew up in Ammans Alwehdat refugee camp. Trained as a teacher, he started his career in the Saudi desert; he reflected on this bitter experience in his first novel Prairies of Fever, which was chosen by the Guardian in 2010 as one of the ten best books to portray the Arab World. After returning to Amman, and while working as a journalist, Nasrallah continued to write poetry and fiction. To date, he has published fourteen collections of poetry and fourteen novels and has received several prizes, including the Al-Uweis Literary Award for Arabic poetry in 1997. He is the author of The Palestinian Comedy, a series of seven novels covering a period of 250 years of modern Palestinian history. His novel The Time of White Horses was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008 and many of his titles have been translated into various languages. Host: Susan Abulhawa Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa Mr. Nasrallah will sign his books at the Signatures Corner on Wednesday, 28 March from 19:30 20:30.

16

20:15 21:30
A conversation between short-listed authors of the IPAF 2012 Host: Dr Maan Al Taie Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

Arabic Fiction Taking Risks: Writers on the Edge

20:30 21:30
Habib El Sayegh
Book-signing

Born in Abu Dhabi in 1955, Habib El Sayegh graduated university with a degree in Philosophy in 1977, and earned his M.A. in Comparative Linguistics from London University in 1998. El Sayegh has held various jobs in the field of media and was editor-in-chief of the Cultural Papers magazine (19821995), which had a deep impact on the local and region-wide cultural scene. El Sayegh works as a consultant and as editor-in-chief of Dar Al Khalij. He is chairman of the board of directors of the Union of Emirati Writers, assistant secretary general of the Union of Arabic Writers, head of the committee of journalistic ethics in the United Arab Emirates, and general manager of the Sultan bin Zayed Center for Media and Culture. El Sayegh is considered a pioneering figure in the new poetic movement in the UAE and the Arab Gulf. His ten volumes of poetry have been translated into many languages, and his Collected Poems will be presented during ADIBF 2012. Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

17

30 March
Friday

16:15 17:15
With Dr. Fatima Al Mazrouei and Aicha Abdullah Dr. Fatima Hamad Al Mazrouei is an Emirati writer and academic. She is the author of Representations of the Other in Pre-Islamic Literature (2007) and alMunafarat in Pre-Islamic Literature (2010). She published her collection of short fiction Day of the Deer in 2010, and two childrens stories in 2012. Aicha Abdullah, who holds a teaching diploma, is a childrens book writer. She has also published a short story which won the Ghanem Ghobash Award. She received the Creativity Award for UAE women from the Girls Club in Sharjah. Host: Micheline Habib Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

The difficulties of writing for children

16:30 17:30
Taleb Al Rifai
Taleb Al Rifai is a Kuwaiti writer born in 1958. He studied civil engineering at Kuwait University, and started writing while still an undergraduate. He has published fifteen works of fiction to date, including collections of short stories and novels, and received the Kuwait National Award of Arts and Literature in 2002 for his novel The Scent of the Sea. Mr. Al Rifai has produced numerous research papers as well, on both literary and cultural subjects, and he regularly writes columns for various Kuwaiti newspapers. He has organized many cultural events in his country and abroad, and was the Chairman of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2009. Host: Adel Khozam Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

17:00 18:00
Abdel Bari Atwan
Book-signing Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

18

17:30 18:30
Bringing stories and literary characters to different audiences A screening of David Copperfield, an eight-minute silent movie produced by Thomas Bentley in 1913, followed by a discussion with the writer Jasper Fforde and the illustrator ILYA. Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

The Life and Adventures of Literature

18:00 19:00
Tishani Doshi Performs her Poetry with Bahareh Amadi
Brought to you by British Council l Venue: The Tent

18:30 19:30
Amir Taj Al Sir
Book-signing Amir Taj Al Sir is a Sudanese writer born in 1960. He studied medicine in Egypt and at the British Royal College of Medicine. He has published fourteen books, including novels, biographies, and collections of poetry. His most important works include The Dowry of Cries, The Copts Worries, The French Perfume, and The Crawling of the Ants. Some of his works have been translated into French, and three novels are currently being translated into French, English, and Italian. Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

19:00 - 20:00
Conversation with Emily Nasrallah
Emily Nasrallah is a novelist, journalist, freelance writer, teacher, lecturer, and womens rights activist, born in 1931 in Kfeir, South Lebanon. She belongs to a group of Lebanese women writers known as the Beirut Decentrists, who stayed in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war, shared the experience of it, and wrote about the conflict. She studied at the Beirut University College (now the Lebanese American University) and then at the American University of Beirut, where she received a B.A. in Education in 1958. She started her journalistic and writing career while still in college. In 1957, she married Philip Nasrallah, with whom she had four children. Her first novel, Birds of September (now in its tenth

19

Friday
edition), was published in 1962 and earned her three Arabic literary prizes. It was followed by seven novels, four childrens books, and seven short story collections that explore themes such as family roots, Lebanese village life, the war in Lebanon, and the struggle of women for independence and self-expression. Her novel Flight Against Time was published in English in 1998 by the University of Texas Press. She is the author of the six-volume series Nisaa Raidat, which profiles pioneering women from the East and the West. Host: Afaf Bataineh Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

19:30 20:30
One of the worlds greatest living travel writers. The National

Tim Mackintosh-Smith, World Traveler

Winner of the 1998 Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Prize for travel literature for his book Yemen, Tim has since devoted himself to retracing the fourteenthcentury travels of Ibn Battutah across three continents. In addition to a trilogy of travel books and a BBC television series, his project also resulted in his editing Ibn Battutahs own Travels. Tim has lectured on Arabic travel literature at Harvard University and the Royal Geographical Society, London, and was historical consultant for the film Journey to Mecca. He contributed the entry on Ibn Battutah to the new edition of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. The third book of his Ibn Battutah trilogy, Landfalls, won him the 2010 Oldie Best Travel Writer award. In December 2010, he was awarded the Ibn Battutah Prize of Honour by the Arab Centre for Geographical Literature. More recently, Newsweek magazine listed him as one of the twelve finest travel writers of the past hundred years. Tim has an M.A. in Oriental Studies from Oxford University. He has translated extensively from Arabic and writes regularly for many publications. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, and a former Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in the University of Durham. Host: Alia Yunis Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

20

20:15 21:00
A discussion between major literary witnesses of our times Speakers: Rachid Boudjedra is an Algerian poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and educator, born in An Beda in 1941. He grew up in Constantine and Tunis, and took an active part in the Algerian independence movement. He studied philosophy in Algiers and Paris, graduating from the Sorbonne with a doctoral dissertation on L.F. Cline. He taught for a while in Algeria, France, and Morocco. Boudjedra is a prolific writer, whose first novel, La Rpudiation (The Repudiation), 1969, gained notoriety because of its explicit language and frontal assault on Muslim traditionalism in contemporary Algeria. He was hailed as the leader of a new movement of experimental fiction. His latest book, Les Figuiers de Barbarie (Grasset, 2010), was awarded the Prix du Roman Arabe. Ibrahim Al Koni was born in 1948 in the southern Libyan desert near Gadams. He spent his childhood in the desert as a member of a tribe of Tuareg, learning Arabic only at the age of twelve. He was schooled in an ancient oasis town near where he grew up. After a brief career as a journalist he went on to study philosophy and literature at the renowned Maxim Gorky Institute in Moscow. In 1974, while still a student, he published his first literary work. He worked at the Libyan Cultural Institute in Moscow and as a journalist and editor at a cultural magazine in Poland before moving to Switzerland in 1993, where he has lived ever since. His oeuvre now spans more than sixty titles, including Anubis: A Desert Novel, Gold Dust, The Animists, The Bleeding of the Stone, The Puppet, and The Seven Veils of Seth. His works have been translated into all the major languages and have won him literary prizes both numerous and prestigious. Host: Khaled Omar Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa Mr. Al Koni will sign his books at the Signatures Corner on Saturday, 31 March from 15:00 16:00.

Arabic Fiction in a Changing World

20:45 21:45
Creating imaginary worlds and depicting the unbelievable through fiction and illustration A discussion among Philip Ardagh, Jasper Fforde, and ILYA. Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Venue: The Tent

Imagination Running Wild

21

31 March
Saturday

10:00 10:45
Affaf Tobbala Reads to Children
Affaf Tobbala, hailing from Egypt, is a childrens book author, an established film director, a screenwriter, and a producer of short documentaries. She has received many awards, among them the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for childrens literature for her book The House and the Palm Tree. Arabic l Followed by a book-signing at the Signatures Corner from 11:00 12:00 Venue: The Tent

11:00 12:00
Affaf Tobbala
Book-signing Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

11:15 12:15
Reading activities for children Philip Ardagh, whose very first Grubtown Tale won him the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, is author of numerous books including the award-winning Eddie Dickens adventures, currently available in over thirty languages. He wrote BBC radios first truly interactive radio drama, collaborated with Sir Paul McCartney on his first childrens book, and is a regularly irregular reviewer of childrens books for the Guardian. Married with a son, he divides his time between Tunbridge Wells and Grubtown, where he cultivates an impressive beard. With Priscilla Baily. Brought to you by British Council English l Venue: The Tent

Ready, Set, Read!

22

11:30 12:30
Al Dokhab: A postmodern story
Fatima Abdullah is an Emirati writer and filmmaker. She has published a collection of short stories, Al Dokhab, and a novel, Manuscripts of the Khawaja Antoine. A socially educated activist, she holds a diploma in Film and Television Directing; her first film, based on her story Spirit, won the best Emirati film and the best short feature film prizes at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2011, for which she thereby received the prestigious Black Pearl award. Host: Mohamed Eid Ibrahim Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

12:30 13:30
Food for Thought: Writing about Eating
With cookbook authors Sally Butcher and Ariana Bundy Sally Butcher blundered into catering by accident after dropping out of a Classics degree at University College London. She worked in a wide variety of catering ventures, from being a chambermaid in Devon to cooking for ungrateful expats in Spain. She met her husband Jamshid while they were managing different outlets of the same restaurant chain. As they are both rather fond of food, they set up their own import company, bringing the pick of Persia to British customers. As such they are now one of the best-known Iranian cookery suppliers in the country. Sally had always wanted to be a writer, so she started producing monthly newsletters for her customers filled with Persian recipes and other information about the cuisine, which grew into her first book, Persia in Peckham. Veggiestan, her second book, offers more of the same: a funny mix of stories, shoplore, and tidbits she picks up from her customers. And some recipes, of course! Ariana Bundy is an American-Iranian chef and cookbook writer. She graduated from Le Cordon Bleu and Le Ntre in Paris, trained at Fauchon Ptisserie, and was head pastry chef for the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles. She lives much of the year in Paris with her family, but her roots are firmly planted in Persian soil. With the writing of her sumptuous and visually stunning cookbook Pomegranates and Roses, she feels she is finally home; having travelled extensively to Tehran and the lands and villages of her forbears, she reclaims thousands of years of Irans incredible culinary heritage and evokes an elegant and exotic culture where food and family are a priority. Host: James Brock Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

23

Saturday

13:00 14:00
On Arab Heritage and Oral Literature Saad Sowayan, Ph.D., is a professor of anthropology and folklore at King Saud University. He has published articles in Arabic and English on the oral literature and spoken language of the Arabian nomads. His ongoing fieldwork in Saudi Arabia reaches into the oldest and most longstanding traditions of preliterate Arabic. Dr Sowayans publications offer remarkable ethnographic standards of concrete evidence in oral Arabian genres, stylistic features, and formal organization. His major works in English are Nabati Poetry: The Oral Poetry of Arabia (1985) and The Arabian Oral Historical Narrative: An Ethnographic and Linguistic Analysis (1992). In 2010, he published The Days of the Early Arabs: Mythologies and Orality in History and Literature in the Northern Arab Peninsula. Host: Aisha Bilkhair Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa Mr. Sowayan will sign his books at the Signatures Corner from 18:00 19:00.

Saad Sowayan

13:45 15:15
Take the stage! A unique opportunity for members of the public to display their performing talent: we invite you to pick up the microphone and recite a text of your choiceall languages are welcome. Thank you for sharing your love of words! Venue: The Tent

Open Mic

14:30 16:00
Sketching the City: A Tribute to Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens began his first attempts at authorship in 1836 under the pseudonym Boz, wandering around London and capturing the essence and character of the city in short narratives. British Council UAE called on all aspiring artists to follow Dickens lead and depict the distinctive character of their city through media such as texts, sketches, and paintings. The speakers will announce the winners of this Sketches by Boz competition, and then engage in a discussion on Charles Dickens legacy. Speakers: Philip Ardagh and ILYA Brought to you by British Council Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

24

15:00 16:00
Ibrahim Al Koni
Book-signing Ibrahim Al Koni was born in 1948 in the southern Libyan desert near Gadams. He spent his childhood in the desert as a member of a tribe of Tuareg, learning Arabic only at the age of twelve. He was schooled in an ancient oasis town near where he grew up. After a brief career as a journalist he went on to study philosophy and literature at the renowned Maxim Gorky Institute in Moscow. In 1974, while still a student, he published his first literary work. He worked at the Libyan Cultural Institute in Moscow and as a journalist and editor at a cultural magazine in Poland before moving to Switzerland in 1993, where he has lived ever since. His oeuvre now spans more than sixty titles, including Anubis: A Desert Novel, Gold Dust, The Animists, The Bleeding of the Stone, The Puppet, and The Seven Veils of Seth. His works have been translated into all the major languages and have won him literary prizes both numerous and prestigious. Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

15:30 16:30
Get tips from the cultural expert Ali Alsaloom Ali Alsaloom will present his popular Ask AliLive show, an unintimidating and interactive introduction to Emirati culture that will help expats and Emiratis alike understand social challenges in the multicultural society of the UAE. This is a great opportunity to ask questions you always wanted to ask an Emirati, but never dared! Ali Alsaloom is an Emirati cultural expert and one of the fastest-rising media personalities and most charismatic public speakers in the Gulf. His internet portal ask-ali.com has become one of the most comprehensive and authentic sources of information about culture and heritage for the UAE and the Gulf region. His themed Ask Ali shows, weekly columns in M magazine, and cultural guidebooks about Abu Dhabi and Dubai reach an international audience. Ali is the Environmental Ambassador of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi and was honored for his success as an entrepreneur with the Khalifa Fund Business Award 2010. Arabic-English l Venue: The Tent

Ali Live!

25

Saturday

16:30 17:30
Arab and Muslim Voices in North America
On identity and integration

Speakers:
James J. Zogby, born 1945, is the author of Arab Voices and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization that serves as a political and policy research arm of the Arab-American community. He is a senior analyst with his brothers polling firm, Zogby International, and is a lecturer and scholar on Middle East issues. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee. Since 1992, Zogby has written Washington Watch, a weekly column on American politics for major Arab newspapers, which is published in fourteen Arab and South Asian countries. He has authored several books, including What Ethnic Americans Really Think and What Arabs Think: Values, Beliefs and Concerns. He also blogs at The Huffington Post and is a member of Politicos Arena. Zogby hosts a weekly interview and call-in discussion program, Viewpoint with James Zogby, about Middle East and world issues on Abu Dhabi Television which is broadcast in America on Link TV, DirecTV, and Dish Network. The show has won an award at the Cairo Radio/Television Festival. Wajahat Ali is a playwright, attorney, new media journalist, and humorist. He is the lead writer and researcher for Fear Inc., The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America, an investigative report published by the Center for American Progress. His award-winning play The Domestic Crusaders is one of the first major plays published about Muslim Americans. He writes commentary pieces for the Guardian, The Huffington Post, Salon, The Washington Post, and other outlets. He is the associate editor of Altmuslim.com and a contributing editor to Islamic Monthly and Illume magazine. He was recognized as an Influential Muslim Artist by the U.S. State Department, an Emerging Muslim American artist by the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow for his work in journalism. He is currently writing an HBO pilot with writer Dave Eggers about a Muslim American cop. He blogs at Goatmilk. Host: Alia Yunis Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

26

17:00 18:00
Robert Irwin
Robert Irwin is a British writer and publisher, born in 1946. He taught medieval history at the University of St Andrews and lectured on Arabic and Middle Eastern history at the universities of London, Cambridge, and Oxford. He is the commissioning editor for the Times Literary Supplement for the Middle East and contributes regularly to a number of newspapers and journals in the UK and the United States. He has published six novels, including The Arabian Nightmare and The Mysteries of Algiers, and ten works of nonfiction, among them The Arabian Nights: A Companion, Islamic Art, Night and Horses and the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature, The Alhambra, For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and their Enemies, and Memoirs of a Dervish: Sufis, Mystics and the Sixties. His latest work, Camel, is being translated into Arabic by Kalima. Host: Matthew Elliot Brought to you by Kalima l Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

18:00 19:00
Saad Sowayan
Book-signing Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

18:00 19:00
Conversation with Alia Mamdouh
Alia Mamdouh is an Iraqi writer born in Baghdad in 1944. She graduated in 1971 with a degree in Psychology from the Mustansariya University in Baghdad, and then worked as editor and editor-inchief for various Arab magazines and newspapers. She left Iraq in 1982, and from 19831990 was in charge of the cultural section of the daily Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh in Rabat, Morocco. She has contributed essays and articles to numerous Arab journals and magazines such as Al-Karmel, Al-Quds al-Arabi, An-Nahar, and Al-Hayat. Alia Mamdouh has published two short stories: Iftitahiya lil-dhahk (1973) and Hawamish ila Sayida B. (1977),and five novels: Layla wa-l-dhib (1981), Habbat al-Naftaleen (Naphthalene, 1986), al-Wala (The Passion, 1993, translated into German and French), al-Ghulama (2000), and al-Mahbubat (The Loved Ones, 2003, published in English by the American University in Cairo Press in 2005), which won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2004 as the best novel of the year. Naphthalene has been translated into many languages, and is part of the curricula at many prestigious universities such as Columbia University in New York and the Sorbonne, as well as a topic of many theses and comparative studies. Alia Mamdouh currently lives in Paris.

27

Host: Dr. Salah Huweidi Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

Saturday

18:30 19:30
Body language and the language of poetry in the Millions Poet programme
With Nadia Buhannad Nadia Buhannad holds a doctorate degree in Educational Psychology and Gifted Education from the University of Arizona. She is the founder and general manager of Sikologia Consultancy in Abu Dhabi, and regularly works as a psychology consultant for television shows such the Millions Poet program. She writes articles for newspapers, which she has published in two volumes, and she has contributed pieces to three compilations. Her latest book, Willing, combines interviews with the community, psychoanalysis, and literature. Host: Adel Khozam Arabic - English l Venue: The Tent

19:15 20:45
Or, how to understand our world through graphic novels Khalil and Amir are the authors of Zahras Paradise, a graphic novel translated into twelve languages before it was even published, about the aftermath of presidential election in Iran in June 2009. Amir is a journalist, activist, and documentary filmmaker based in California. He was born in Iran, but had to leave with his family at the age of 12 following the 1979 revolution. His career as a journalist and activist has been largely focused on human rights in Iran. Khalil was born in Paris and has been a political cartoonist and fine artist in California since the age of 20. His work has been distributed in hundreds of newspapers in the United States, Canada, and Australia and reprinted worldwide. Zahras Paradise is his first graphic novel. Host: zge Calafato Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

Zahras Paradise

28

20:00 21:00
Ahmad Yamani and Adel Khozam Ahmad Yamani is an Egyptian poet and translator, born in Cairo in 1970. He holds a diploma in graduate studies from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he is currently working on his Ph.D. Mr. Yamani has been publishing his poems since 1989 and has published four books of poetry so far: Amaken khatia (Wrong Places, 2008), Wardat fil-ras (Roses in the Head, 2001), Taht shagarat al-aila (Under the Family Tree, 1998), and Shawaria al-abyad wal-aswad (Black and White Streets, 1995). He lives in Madrid, Spain. Adel Khozam is an Emirati poet and writer. He has published three books of poetry, and two books on theatre and the fine arts in the UAE. He has been working in the media since the 1990s, and has composed musical scores for the theatre and TV. He won first prize at the Childrens Theatre Festival in Sharjah. Arabic l Venue: The Tent

Poetry Reading

21:00 22:00
Open Mic Take the stage!
A unique opportunity for members of the public to display their performing talent: we invite you to pick up the microphone and recite a text of your choiceall languages are welcome. Thank you for sharing your love of words! Venue: The Tent

29

1 April
Sunday

11:00 12:00
Nabiha Mheidly
Book-signing Nabiha Mheidly is a childrens book author and the owner of Dar al-Hadaeq publishing house, a house specializing in childrens books and magazines. Ms. Mheidly is also a lecturer in childrens journalism and literature. She is the author of fifty books for readers ages 27 and 712, and she has received numerous prizes, among them the Arabic Journalism Award in Dubai. Her latest book was published in 2011. Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

11:00 12:00
On the importance of fairytales in helping children understand their world and its history A discussion inspired by Kalimas publication of the Collection of Stories from Around the World, compiled by the Diplomatic Group for the Spouses of Ambassadors UAE. Speakers: Dr. Maha Radwan, project coordinator, with the Director of the Al Ain Care & Rehabilitation Centre and Ahmad Tay, storyteller. Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

Once upon a Time...

12:00 13:00
A conversation with Delphine Jacquot Delphine Jacquot is a French illustrator, born in 1982. She was trained as a draughtsman and designer before studying communication at the School of the Beaux-Arts in Rennes. She then turned to childrens book illustration and graduated from the Beaux-Arts academy in Brussels, Belgium. She was among seven illustrators who contributed pictures for a book about the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque of Abu Dhabi in 2010. Two of her books have been translated into Arabic by Kalima: Le Cavalier Bleu and Ibou Min et les Tortues de Bolilanga. Host: Charlotte Chedeville Arabic-English-French l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

The Art of Illustration

30

12:30 13:15
KITAB Reading Competition 2012
Final round Fifth graders from Al Ain and Abu Dhabi compete for the title of Read-Aloud Champion. Our winner from last year will join a panel of judges to help pick a winner from among eight finalists. Come and be entertained by listening to a wonderful story, translated by Kalima, and support these young readers. Arabic l Venue: Discussion Sofa

13:30 14:30
Poetry workshop with Bahareh Amidi An invitation to our public! Come take part in an interactive session where you will be encouraged to compose your own poetical interpretation of a theme that will be chosen by all participants, under the guidance of the poetess Bahareh Amadi. Bahareh Amidi is an American-Iranian spiritual poet. She grew up in the United States, traveled around the world, and currently lives in Abu Dhabi. She studied philosophy at Menlo College in California and holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology from Catholic University in Washington, D.C.. Bahareh has worked with the elderly, children, and victims of gender abuse, as well as in suicide prevention and drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers. Among her mentors, she counts John Fox, Certified Poetry Therapist and author of Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making. Bahareh has written over forty poetry journals in English and Persian, on themes including human rights, gender empowerment, global peace, interfaith harmony, overcoming trauma, and protecting the environment. Her work has often been compared to classical spiritual masters like Rumi and contemporary writers like Khalil Gibran. English l Venue: The Tent

Lets Be Poets!

14:00 15:00
Meet the Winners of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Literature and Childrens Literature
Host: Dr. Khalil Al Sheikh Brought to you by the Sheikh Zayed Book Award l Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

31

Sunday

15:00 16:00
Amin Zaoui
Book-signing Amin Zaoui, born in 1956 in Bab El Assa, Algeria, is a writer and bilingual scholar in Arabic and French. He was in charge of the National Library in Algiers for six years, and is currently a member of the board of directors of the Fonds Arabe pour la Culture et les Art. He has taught languages and translation at the Universit dOran, and published many essays and fifteen novels, including Banquet of Lies (2007) and Hady altuyus (2011). Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

15:00 16:00
Writing about the Desert
Taking as a point of departure the imperative of Michael Ondaatjes The English Patient to write tales of desert exploration outside official history, NYUAD students have produced stories that speak of the traveling culture from below before and during World War IIfrom the perspective of tribesmen, secretaries, and the eras overlooked female and Arab explorers. Brought to you by New York University Abu Dhabi l English l Venue: The Tent

16:15 17:15
Presenting the Book Naguib Mahfouz: Man of Cinema
Published in English and Arabic by the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, this book investigates the unique relationship that Naguib Mahfouz, the man and the writer, had with cinemaone of the many elements of his creative world. It addresses Mahfouzs contribution to Arab cinema as a novelist and scriptwriter, presents a comparative study of his work that was adapted into Mexican cinema, and offers critical reviews of the films of Salah Abu Seif and Hassan Al Imam, who were deeply inspired by Mahfouz.

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Speaker:
Mohamed Salmawy is president of the Egyptian Writers Union, editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo, and a columnist at Al-Ahram. He is one of Egypts most prolific writers, being a playwright, novelist, columnist, critic, and political commentator. Mr. Salmawy has held several official posts, including that of Undersecretary of State for Foreign Cultural Relations at the Egyptian Ministry of Culture (198889). He taught English language and literature at Cairo University (196677), before becoming foreign editor of Al-Ahram newspaper (197988). Many of his titles have been translated into other languages, including his two plays The Chains and The Last Dance of Salom. Brought to you by the Abu Dhabi Film Festival l Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa Host: Philip Kennedy Mr. Salmawy will sign his books at the Signatures Corner on Monday, 2 April from 18:3019:30.

17:00 18:00
Jonas Hassen Khemiri and Wajahat Ali Jonas Hassen Khemiri, born in Sweden in 1978, is the author of two novels and one collection of plays and short stories. His first novel, One Eye Red, received the Boras Tidning award for best literary debut. His second novel, Montecore, won several literary awards including the Swedish Radio Award for best novel of the year. Khemiri has also received the PO Enquist Literary Prize for the most promising young European writer. His first play, Invasion!, was written for the Stockholm City Theatre and has been performed in France, Germany, the UK, and Norway, and was awarded a Village Voice Obie Award in 2011 for best script. Khemiri has also written the plays God Times Five for Riksteatern and We Who Are Hundred, which opened at Gothenburg City Theatre in 2009 and won the Hedda Award, Norways top theatrical award, for the best play of 2010. He has been named one of the most important Swedish writers of his generation. He currently divides his time between Stockholm and Berlin. Wajahat Ali is a playwright, attorney, new media journalist, and humorist. His award-winning play, The Domestic Crusaders, is one of the first major plays published about Muslim Americans. He has contributed commentary pieces to the Guardian, The Huffington Post, Salon, The Washington Post, and other outlets. He is currently writing an HBO pilot with writer Dave Eggers about a Muslim American cop. He blogs at Goatmilk. Host: Nezar Andary Brought to you by the Embassy of Sweden l Arabic-English l Followed by a booksigning l Venue: The Tent

The Playwrights Corner

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Sunday

17:30 18:30
The Arab Gulf behind the Stereotypes
Presenting a new atlas of the Gulf countries Based on the results of a three-year research program, this atlas aims to challenge many common preconceived ideas about the countries of the Arab Gulf. It presents the contemporary realities of the Gulf countries in all of their complexity and contradictions, demonstrating that they are not only oil producers, but also stakeholders in globalization. It shows that the cities of the Gulf which experienced spectacular oil-related growth are neither without a past nor without a post-oil destiny. Anchored in a double heritage both Bedouin and maritime, they anticipate the cities of the future in many aspects. The atlas analyzes the old, changing, and ambiguous relations between the two shores of the Gulf, and explains to what extent the current dynamics induce spatial reorganization and social change. Employing a multi-scale approach, it throws light on the dialectic between unity and diversity in the region.

Speakers:
Dr. Philippe Cadne is a professor of geography at Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi and a member of SEDET (Transdisciplinary Studies on Developing Societies), a research center attached to Paris-Diderot University. Dr. Brigitte Dumortier is the head of the Department of Geography and Planning at PSUAD and a member of SEDET (Transdisciplinary Studies on Developing Societies), a research center attached to Paris-Diderot University. Frank Ttart currently teaches at the Lyce Franais Louis Massignon in Abu Dhabi. He holds a doctorate in Geopolitical Science and is an associate professor at the Universit de Genve. Brought to you by Paris-Sorbonne University Abou Dhabi Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

18:15 19:15
Meet Sahar El Mougy
Sahar El Mougy is a storyteller, a gender and creative writing trainer, an assistant professor in the English Department at Cairo University, and a radio presenter (she hosts a writing workshop on the Cairobased English local station Radio Cairo). She started writing in 1994 and has published two collections of short storiesSayedat al-manam (The Lady of the Dream), 1998; and Aliha saghira (Little Gods), 2003as well as two awardwinning novels: Daria, 1999, and Noon, 2007. She is also the author of Developing the Emotional Intelligence in Children, a gender training manual published in 2004. Host: Nasser Iraq Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

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19:00 20:00
Fawaz Haddad
Fawaz Haddad is a Syrian novelist, born in Damascus in 1947. He graduated with a degree in law from the Syrian University in 1970. A full-time writer since 1988, he has published ten novels and a collection of short stories. He has served as a judge for several prizes for the novel in Syria. In 2009, he was short-listed for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for The Unfaithful Translator, and his most recent novel, Gods Soldiers, was long-listed for the 2011 IPAF. Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

19:30 20:30
Between writing and translation
Maryam Faraj Jouma is an Emirati writer who studied English Literature at Bagdad University and Linguistics and Translation in England. She started her career as a teacher and later began working as a journalistic translator. She has published two collections of short fiction: Fairouz (1988) and Water (1994). Some of her translations have been published in An Exceptional Woman (2003). Host: Ali Al Shaali Arabic-English l Venue: The Tent

20:30 21:30
Conversation with Rachid Boudjedra
Rachid Boudjedra is an Algerian poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and educator, born in An Beda in 1941. He grew up in Constantine and Tunis, and took an active part in the Algerian independence movement. He studied philosophy in Algiers and Paris, graduating from the Sorbonne with a doctoral dissertation on L.F. Cline. He taught for a while in Algeria, France, and Morocco. Boudjedra is prolific writer, whose first novel, La Rpudiation (The Repudiation), 1969, gained notoriety because of its explicit language and frontal assault on Muslim traditionalism in contemporary Algeria. He was hailed as the leader of a new movement of experimental fiction. His latest book, Les Figuiers de Barbarie (Grasset, 2010), was awarded the Prix du Roman Arabe. Host: Dr. Maan Al Taie Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

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2 April
Sunday

10:00 10:45
Storytelling with Ahmed Tay
Ahmed Ali Tay started his career as a storyteller in 2007, performing in schools, universities, and public libraries. He runs workshops and classes on the art of storytelling and on how to write and discern quality childrens books. His has published four childrens books himself, including his latest title Who Is Here. Arabic l Venue: The Tent Mr. Tay will sign his books at the Signatures Corner from 11:30 12:30.

11:00 12:00
Jennifer Steil in conversation with the members of the American Women Network reading group Jennifer Steil is an American writer and journalist; her most recent work includes a long piece on Yemen for the World Policy Journal, another article on Yemen for Die Welt, and a piece in The Washington Times about Londons 911/ memorial. Jennifer started her career as a professional actor (she holds a bachelors degree in Theatre from Oberlin College) but went on to complete a masters degree in Creative Writing/Fiction (at Sarah Lawrence College) and another one at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Since 1997, she has worked as a reporter, writer, and editor for newspapers and magazines in the US and abroad. Her first book, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky, was published in 2010 to critical acclaim: it is a memoir of the year she worked as editor of the Yemen Observer in Sanaa. After spending a total of four years in Yemen, she now lives in London with her family and is working on a novel. With Tahira Yaqoob Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

Live Book Club

11:00 12:00
Launching the Arabic translation of Gustavo Pereiras book Celebrating the bicentennial of the independence of Venezuela, the Venezuelan Embassy in the UAE has sponsored the translation into Arabic of the great poet Gustavo Pereiras book Simon Bolivar, Anti-Colonial Writings. The universality of Bolivars principles is the best introduction to the political, historical, and social

Simon Bolivar, Anti-Colonial Writings

36

reality of Latin America. This book will lead Arab readers to delve into Bolivars thoughts about freedom, and into the reasons underlying the emancipation movement in Venezuelaa movement still in force today, and not only in Latin America. Speakers: Amer Al Qadi (cultural affairs attach); Adnan Qadhem (translator) Brought to you by the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela l ArabicEnglish l Venue: Discussion Sofa

11:30 12:30
Ahmed Tay
Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner Book-signing

12:15 13:15
The Stars in the Palms of Your Hands
The beauty of science books Olivier Sauzereau, from France, is a professional photographer who specializes in astronomical phenomena. He has been traveling around the world for the past twenty years taking pictures of those extraordinary occurrences when our planet and the universe create beautiful cosmic landscapes. His original astro-photographic work shows the astronomical skies as seen from Earth, offering the nonspecialist the possibility of discovering the celestial world through a sense of aesthetics. The images talk also about science: parallel to his activities as an astro-photographer, Olivier Sauzereau has been working since 1984 in the field of popular science through conferences, exhibitions, books (most recently Lil de lastronome and LObservatoire, 2009), and TV documentaries. He was the director of the collection Les mondes connus et inconnus at Actes Sud Junior, which republished several little-known novels by Jules Verne. He is pursuing a doctorate in Epistemology and the History of Sciences and Techniques. Brought to you by Institut Franais UAE l Arabic-English-French l Venue: The Tent

12:30 13:30
Short Story Award
Meet the winners of the competition co-sponsored by the Arts and Life section of The National and Abu Dhabi International Book Fair With Sahar El Mougy Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

37

Sunday

13:45 14:45
Outstanding Women of the UAE
Judith Hornok presents her book Modern Arab Women: The New Generation of the United Arab Emirates Judith Hornok will engage in an in-depth conversation with some of the inspiring Emirati women featured in her book, who achieved success in the fields of the arts, business, medicine, sport, fashion, and politics. Together, they will discuss their principles in life and the boundaries they crossed, and will analyze the image that the West has of Eastern women and vice versa. Judith Hornok is an Austrian journalist and communication specialist. For the past eight years she has divided her time between the GCC states and the West. She moderates business panels and international discussions on the new generation of Arabs, and has lectured on women in the Arab Gulf at Stanford University in the United States (2010). She also presents seminars and workshops on the subject of cultural understanding between the Arab World and the West for companies around the world. In 2010, she took part in the Ethics and Ideals in the International Press debate at the Festival of Thinkers in Abu Dhabi; in 2011, she participated in the panel The Arab World in the Media at the Munich Media Days. Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

15:00 16:00
Meet the Winners of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in the Translation and Young Author Categories
Host: Kadhem Jihad Brought to you by the Sheikh Zayed Book Award Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

16:30 17:30
Samiha Khreis
Book-signing Samiha Khreis is a Jordanian writer by, author of twelve short story collections and novels, including: Yahya, al-Qarmiya, The Sunflower, and Nara. Her latest novel, On the Birds Wing, was published by Dar Al Hiwar in 2012. Some of her works have been translated into other languages. She was awarded the Prize for Literature from the Arab Thought Foundation.

38

Host: Walid Alaeddine l Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

17:00 18:00
Celebrating the Centenary of mile Durkheims Masterpiece
The sociology of religion today: Durkheims heritage In 1912, the founder of French sociology, mile Durkheim, published The Elementary Forms of Religionhis most major work and a landmark in the field of the sociology of religion. To commemorate the hundredth anniversary of this publication, the Department of Philosophy and Sociology at Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi has invited world-renowned specialists to discuss the Durkheimian conception of religion and to show how contemporary sociology can still fruitfully use Durkheims tools to understand religion today. Speakers: Dr. Marcel Fournier is a professor of sociology at the Universit de Montral (Canada), a specialist in the sociology of science and culture, and the author of an authoritative biography of mile Durkheim (Fayard, 2007). Dr. Sbastien Mosbah-Natanson has been an assistant professor of sociology at PSUAD (UAE) since 2011. He specialized for his Ph.D. in the history of French sociology, and he currently works on the internationalization of social sciences. He contributed to the UNESCO World Social Science Report 2010. Dr. Yuting Wang has been an assistant professor of sociology at the American University of Sharjah (UAE) since 2009. She specializes in the sociology of religion, and her research focuses on Islam in the United States and religion in China. She is also currently studying students values in the UAE. Dr. Vinod K. Jairath is a professor of sociology at the University of Hyderabad (India) and a specialist in the sociology of science and the sociology of culture. He is currently interested in Muslim communities in Asia. Brought to you by Paris-Sorbonne University Abou Dhab Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

18:15 19:15
A Chat with the Sheikh Zayed Book Award Winners in the Technology and Best Publishing House Categories
Host: Juergen Boos Brought to you by the Sheikh Zayed Book Award Arabic-English l Venue: Discussion Sofa

18:30 19:30
Meet Jonas Hassen Khemiri
Jonas Hassen Khemiri, born in Stockholm in 1978, is an award-winning Swedish-Tunisian novelist and playwright. He is the author of two novels and one collection of plays and short stories. His first novel, One Eye Red, received the Boras Tidning award for best literary debut. His second novel, Montecore, won several literary awards including the Swedish Radio Award for best novel of the year. Khemiri has also received the PO Enquist Literary Prize for the most promising young European writer. His first play, Invasion!, was written for the Stockholm City Theatre and has been performed in France, Germany, the UK,

39

Monday
and Norway. Khemiri has also written the plays God Times Five for Riksteatern and We Who Are Hundred, which opened at Gothenburg City Theatre in 2009 and won the Hedda Award, Norways top theatrical award, for the best play of 2010. He has been named one of the most important Swedish writers of his generation. He currently divides his time between Stockholm and Berlin. Host: zge Calafato Brought to you by the Embassy of Sweden l Arabic-English Followed by a book-signing l Venue: The Tent

18:30 19:30
Mohamed Salmawy
Book-signing Mohamed Salmawy is president of the Egyptian Writers Union, editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo, and a columnist at Al-Ahram. He is one of Egypts most prolific writers, being a playwright, novelist, columnist, critic, and political commentator. Mr. Salmawy has held several official posts, including that of Undersecretary of State for Foreign Cultural Relations at the Egyptian Ministry of Culture (198889). He taught English language and literature at Cairo University (196677), before becoming foreign editor of Al-Ahram newspaper (197988). Many of his titles have been translated into other languages, including his two plays The Chains and The Last Dance of Salom. Host: Walid Alaeddine Arabic l Venue: Signatures Corner

19:30 20:30
Live Book Club Nasser Iraq meets the members of Iqraa reading group
Nasser Iraq graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo University, in 1984. He has worked in cultural journalism in Egypt and co-founded the Dubai AlThaqafiya magazine, where he has been managing editor since 2004. He has published a number of books, including: A History of Journalistic Art in Egypt (2002), which won the Ahmad Bahaa al-Din Prize in its first year; Times of the Dust (2006); From the Excess of Love (2008); The Green and the Damaged (2009); and The Unemployed (2011). He currently works as Cultural and Media Coordinator for the Foundation of Culture and Science Symposium in Dubai.

40

Arabic-English l Followed by a book-signing l Venue: Discussion Sofa

20:00 21:00
A Tribute to Anthony Shadid
Last month, the Pulitzer Prize winning, journalist Anthony Shadid, passed away while on assignment in Syria. For over ten years, his courageous journalism evoked a humanity rarely seen in the coverage of the Middle East. His two books were not only award winners, but revealed compelling narratives confronting the identity of Islamic movements and the tragedy that befell Iraq. Today, we celebrate his third book, Heart of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and the Lost Middle East, by an open reading of his masterful prose and confronting the questions of his journey. Host: Nezar Andary English l Venue: The Tent

20:45 21:45
Paul Zacharia
Paul Zacharia is an Indian writer born in Kerala in 1945. He went to university in Mysore and Bangalore, and was a college teacher from 19671971 before beginning a career in publishing and the media, including a position at Asianet Television from 1972 2001. He has published over forty-five books, from stories, novels, and essays to travelogues, film-scripts, and translations of works into various languages. He has received over twenty literary prizes, including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi and Kendra Sahitya Akademi awards. Paul Zacharia regularly writes for Keralas leading newspapers and magazines, as well as in major national periodicals in English, including India Today, The Economic Times, and The Times of India. He currently lives in Thiruvananthapuram. Brought to you by Siraj Malayalam Daily l Malayalam l Venue: Discussion Sofa

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BRITISH COUNCIL WORKSHOPS

To register, please contact: anita.butani@ae.britishcouncil.org

Wednesday 28 March, 10:00 11:30

Introduction to Creative Writing Workshop for aspiring writers (18+) with UK novelist Marina Lewycka Venue: Capital Suite 19

Wednesday 28 March, 12:00 13:30

Creative Writing Workshop One of UKs most entertaining and imaginative authors, Jasper Fforde, in an interactive session for 12 to 16 year olds Venue: Capital Suite 18

Wednesday 28 March, 13:45 14:45

Using Literature in Language Teaching Session for teachers of English to explore ways of using literature for English language teaching Venue: Capital Suite 18

Friday 30 March, 15:30 16:30

Poetry Writing Workshop by Tishani Doshi For 12 to 26 year olds Venue: Capital Suite 19

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Friday 30 March, 17:00 18:30

Writing for younger audiences Creative Writing Workshop by Childrens Writer Philip Ardagh for aspiting writers (18+) Venue: Capital Suite 19

Saturday 31 March, 10:40 11.20

Helping your child learn through sharing storybooks Session for parents; how sharing storybooks can help children learn and develop

Saturday 31 March, 12:00 13:00

Storytelling for primary teachers Session for primary teachers (and parents) on choosing and telling stories to primary age kids

Saturday 31 March, 18:30 20:00

Illustration Workshop Session by British Artist and Writer Ed Hillyer (aka ILYA), for audiences with basic illustration experience

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