Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2023 line-up revealed

The stellar line-up includes Brian Cox, Jeffrey Archer and Mohsin Hamid. 

Bookworms, this one’s for you. The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, the biggest celebration of stories in the Arab region, returns from 1 to 6 February 2023. Now in its 15th year, the festival welcomes celebrities, authors and experts in their field. 

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature brings together 250 guests, 50 different nationalities and 300 events. The stellar line-up includes Succession star Brian Cox, Indian politician Shashi Tharoor, and religious commentator Reza Aslan. Plus, best-selling authors Cecelia Ahern behind PS. I Love You and Where the Rainbow Ends, and Mohsin Hamid behind The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West.

The festival welcomes back Alexander McCall Smith and Jeffrey Archer. Poets include Bahrain’s Qasim Haddad, and the UAE’s Maisoon Saker Al Qassimi. Plus, the British author Lemn Sissay will be the festival’s first guest curator.

Next year, Emirates Airline Festival of Literature takes place at Intercontinental Dubai Festival City, and the Creek at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library. Plus, the two venues will be connected by an abra service across the water. 

Ahlam Bolooki, Festival Director for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, explained: “We are overjoyed at the amazing line-up we have secured to celebrate our 15th year, welcoming old friends and new. We are so proud of what has been achieved in that time. We have welcomed almost 1,700 writers to Dubai, who have transported us to new worlds and different times and introduced us to characters we might not have ordinarily met.

“Through discussion, dialogue, and stories, together we have made sense of the world, learnt about ourselves and each other, connected with and appreciated others’ viewpoints. We have ignited a passion for reading and words in the many thousands of children who have been inspired by meeting an author.”

Tickets start at AED 25. Day, weekend, student and publishing day passes start from AED 199. Sounds like a page turner.

GO: Visit https://tickets.emirateslitfest.com for more information.