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Emirates Airline Festival of Literature announces 2025 lineup

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature announces 2025 lineup
The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature revealed its 2025 author lineup on Tuesday. (Supplied)
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Updated 13 November 2024
Shyama Krishna Kumar
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Emirates Airline Festival of Literature announces 2025 lineup

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature announces 2025 lineup
Updated 13 November 2024
Shyama Krishna Kumar
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DUBAI: The Emirates Literature Foundation has revealed the speaker lineup and programme details for the upcoming Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2025, officially marking the countdown to the 17th edition of the event. Set to take place from Jan. 29 to Feb. 3, 2025 at the newly renovated InterContinental Dubai Festival City, the LitFest will offer attendees over 150 incomparable experiences, including fan-favourites: Desert Stanzas, LitFest After Hours, Discovery Talks, and the LitFest Families programme.

Leading the list of authors is US-Indian writer and Stanford University professor Abraham Verghese, author of “The Covenant of Water,” which rose to fame when it was chosen for Oprah Winfrey’s book club.

Other anticipated names include Emmy Award-winning journalist Hala Gorani, the best-selling author and illustrator of the wildly popular “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series Jeff Kinney, multi-talented author and screenwriter Daniel Handler (also known as Lemony Snicket, creator of “A Series of Unfortunate Events”), Booker Prize-nominated author Chigozie Obioma, best-selling travel writer and author Dr Mohamed Mansi Qandil, scholar and researcher Abdel Illah Benarafa, Cultural Personality of the Year Waciny Laredj, poet and author Khalid Albudoor, and celebrated Palestinian chef and cookbook author Fadi Kattan.

Closer to home, Saudi author Faisal J. Abbas will talk about his new book, “Anecdotes of an Arab Anglophile,” a witty and thoughtful take on what it is like being an Arab in London.

“As we navigate a world of uncertainty and change, the Emirates LitFest serves as a vital platform for dialogue, understanding, and reflection,” said Ahlam Bolooki, CEO of Emirates Literature Foundation, Director of Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, and Managing Director of ELF Publishing.

“Global conversations around identity and culture have never been more crucial, and we are honoured to welcome literary icons from across the globe whose works speak to the heart of these issues. Through our Festival’s dynamic programme, sessions that are set to inspire future generations and events that celebrate our shared experiences, we are building a community based on empathy and understanding. Now, more than ever, we need stories that connect us to our shared humanity, and the Emirates LitFest is where those stories happen” she added.

Dubai Culture is sponsoring this year’s Emirati Strand, which celebrates the culture of the UAE and provides an opportunity for Emirati and international authors to grace the Emirates LitFest stage together. The Emirati Strand features a diverse range of experiences and a distinguished line-up of Emirati writers including poet Adel Khozam, Dr Noura Alkarbi, artist Asmaa Al-Remithi, poet Ali Al-Shaali, author and scholar Salha Ghabish, author and trainer Hamdan Bin Shfayan Alameri, author Nadia Al Najjar, filmmaker Nahla Al Fahad, and many more.

“With everything going on in the world, now more than ever, we need stories. We need human connection. We need to come together in the ‘sanctuary of dreams’ … which the festival offers,” Tamreez Inam, head of programming, told Arab News.

“The festival welcomes people who want to dream and imagine a world that celebrates our shared humanity and offers a place where people can tell their own stories, find themselves in other stories and connect at that very human level. And I think that’s why the 2025 festival is so important; it’s needed more than ever now,” she added.

Dania Droubi, the festival’s chief operating officer, revealed that the event will also host an international youth program.

“We have 150 university students from around the world coming to participate in our program, and they are going to be here in Dubai,” she said.

“They’re all students who speak Arabic and who study Arabic. They are going to be here to meet with another 150 from the UAE-based universities, and they’re here to attend and see the authors and the speakers … and just participate in these discussions, because the youth are the future.”

For information on the full programme and tickets, visit https://emirateslitfest.com.

Topics: The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature

Bella Hadid’s childhood home destroyed in LA fires

Bella Hadid’s childhood home destroyed in LA fires
Updated 11 January 2025
Arab News
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Bella Hadid’s childhood home destroyed in LA fires

Bella Hadid’s childhood home destroyed in LA fires
Updated 11 January 2025
Arab News

DUBAI: US Dutch Palestinian model Bella Hadid took to Instagram this week to share a devastating moment as her childhood home in Los Angeles caught fire.

The model posted a photo on her Instagram Story showing flames and smoke engulfing the house, accompanied by the caption: “Childhood bedroom,” with a sad face emoji.

In a following Story, Hadid shared an aerial view of the house after the fire had been extinguished, revealing the extent of the damage. The once-familiar home was visibly charred, with remnants of the fire still evident.

The model posted a photo on her Instagram Story showing flames and smoke engulfing the house, accompanied by the caption: “Childhood bedroom,” with a sad face emoji. (Instagram)

While Bella did not provide further details, her posts offered a glimpse into the heartbreaking loss of a place filled with cherished childhood memories.

The Malibu property, where her mother Yolanda Hadid once lived and raised Bella and her sister Gigi, frequently appeared on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

In a following Story, Hadid shared an aerial view of the house after the fire had been extinguished, revealing the extent of the damage. (Instagram)

Hadid is not the first celebrity to experience such a loss. Billy Crystal lost his Pacific Palisades home, where he had lived since 1979. Paris Hilton watched her Malibu beach mansion burn live on television.

Perennial Oscars host Crystal and his wife Janice said they were heartbroken to lose the Pacific Palisades house where they had raised their children and grandchildren.

Media personality Hilton said she was “heartbroken beyond words” to lose her beachfront mansion.

“Sitting with my family, watching the news, and seeing our home in Malibu burn to the ground on live TV is something no one should ever have to experience,” she wrote on X.

The list of celebrities impacted by the worst fires in Los Angeles history reads like a Hollywood who’s who: Jamie Lee Curtis, James Woods, Mandy Moore, Mark Hamill, and Maria Shriver all publicly shared their experiences of being forced to evacuate as flames tore through some of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods.

The Palisades Fire between Santa Monica and Malibu on the city’s western flank and the Eaton Fire in the east near Pasadena rank as the most destructive in Los Angeles history, consuming more than 35,000 acres (14,164 hectares) — or some 54 square miles — and turning entire neighborhoods to ash.

Topics: Bella Hadid

Coldplay lights up chilly Abu Dhabi with visual and auditory spectacle

Coldplay lights up chilly Abu Dhabi with visual and auditory spectacle
Updated 10 January 2025
Arab News
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Coldplay lights up chilly Abu Dhabi with visual and auditory spectacle

Coldplay lights up chilly Abu Dhabi with visual and auditory spectacle
  • Band began 4-day UAE concert series on Thursday
  • Show is part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour
Updated 10 January 2025
Arab News

DUBAI: Grammy Award-winning band Coldplay lit up a chilly Abu Dhabi with a visual and auditory spectacle on Thursday at Zayed Sports City Stadium, for the first of their four-day concert series that is a part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour.

The setlist featured crowd favorites including “All the Love,” “Yellow,” “Hymn for the Weekend,” “Paradise,” “The Scientist,” “Clocks,” and “A Sky Full of Stars.”

Adoring fans wore glowing wristbands that pulsed in sync with the music. There were bursts of confetti, large illuminated planets suspended throughout the stadium, and balloons floating across the crowd.

Coldplay engaged with the audience, including having a couple reveal their baby’s gender, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Frontman Chris Martin charmed the audience further by speaking in Arabic. “Assalamu alaikum, wa masa’ al khair. Shukran jazeelan,” he said, translating to “Peace to you, and good evening. Thank you very much.”

Before Coldplay’s set, Chilean-Palestinian singer Elyanna warmed up the crowd with a captivating performance, singing hits including “Ganeni” and “Mama Eh.”

Later, she joined Coldplay on stage to perform their collaborative track, “We Pray.”

The concert ended with a breathtaking fireworks display. 

Coldplay will perform in the UAE capital on Jan. 11, 12 and 14.

Topics: Abu Dhabi coldplay

Highlights from the traveling ‘Art of the Kingdom’ exhibition 

Highlights from the traveling ‘Art of the Kingdom’ exhibition 
Updated 10 January 2025
Arab News
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Highlights from the traveling ‘Art of the Kingdom’ exhibition 

Highlights from the traveling ‘Art of the Kingdom’ exhibition 
  • The show, which is on display in Rio de Janeiro until Jan. 12, features work by 17 contemporary Saudi-based artists 
Updated 10 January 2025
Arab News

RIYADH: “Art of the Kingdom” is perhaps the most significant exhibition so far for Saudi contemporary artists. It has already been on show in Brazil’s capital city for three months, and will soon move to Riyadh, before heading to China.  

It features works by 17 Saudi, or Saudi-based, artists — Ayman Yossri Daydban, Ahmed Mater, Emy Kat (Mohamed Alkhatib), Ayman Zedani, Shadia Alem, Nasser Al-Salem, Manal AlDowayan, Lina Gazzaz, Muhannad Shono, Sarah Brahim, Daniah Alsaleh, Faisal Samra, Filwa Nazer, Moath Alofi, Ahaad Alamoudi, Sarah Abuabdallah, and Ghada Al-Hassan — and, as the press release states, “offers a unique opportunity to explore the ways in which Saudi contemporary art contributes to shaping new cultural narratives.” 

The press release also states: “Two main themes emerge from the exhibition … The first is the desert as a definition of space, infinity, and life; the second is the singularity of cultural tradition, and the evolution of a unique visual culture, shaped by diverse pasts and presents.” 

Here are just a few of the artworks that make up the exhibition, the theme of which is “Poetic Illuminations.” 

Nasser Al-Salem 

‘Arabi/Gharbi’ 

The Makkah-born artist’s work, according to the exhibition brochure, “challenges the traditional boundaries of Islamic calligraphy by re-contextualizing it through mixed media, minimalist approaches, and architectural methods.” This piece, the title of which translates to ‘Arab/Foreigner’ is made up of neon lighting that presents both words simultaneously: a single illuminated (or not illuminated) dot allows it to switch between the two — when lit, it says ‘Gharbi,’ when unlit it reads “Arabi” — thus highlighting the minor differences that help form our images or ourselves. It is used as both the first and last piece in the exhibition, because, according to curator Diana Wechsler, “it installs a border between the contemporary Saudi world and the cultural horizon of the public. The journey through the exhibition shows, piece by piece … different aspects of this fascinating culture in which past and present, traditions and changes are involved. Arriving at the end of this journey and finding again the twinkling neon of Nasser Al-Salem, I like to imagine that the public will see it differently; that the experience of the journey has been able to broaden their horizons.”  

Nasser Al-Salem's Arabi-Gharbi. (Supplied)

Ahmed Mater 

‘X-Ray Illumination Diptych 1’ 

Mater is one of the most internationally famous Saudi contemporary artists — last summer he was the subject of a mid-career retrospective at Christie’s in London. This work comes from his “Illuminations” series, which, according to the artist’s website, blends “the past, represented by traditional Islamic arts, with the present, through the innovations of modern medicine.”  

It continues: “Faith and science are brought together — two subjects that are often treated as essentially separate and full of tense contradictions.” It is perhaps no surprise that the work of Mater — a doctor and an artist — should tackle these contradictions. 

In a brief essay about the series, Linda Komaroff, of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, writes: “What could be more intimate than literally to see inside another individual? This is most eloquently expressed in (Mater’s) great diptychs in which a traditional type of richly illuminated double page composition frames two X-rays set face to face; the skeletal images suggest some elemental form of humanity, stripped of the skin, hair, eyes and clothes that differentiate as well as separate us.” 

Ahmed Mater's Illumination-Diptych-I. (Supplied)

Sarah Brahim 

‘Soft Machines/Far Away Engines’ 

This work by visual and performance artist Sarah Brahim was originally commissioned for the first Diriyah Contemporary Biennale in 2021. The screens show individuals moving and embracing. Small gestures, Brahim told Arab News in July 2022, are “amplified through repetition and layering, conjuring up multifaceted images of beauty.” Her work in general, according to the show brochure, “is a response to and reflection on how we can heal both internally and externally, and how art and culture can serve as a vehicle for this movement.” 

Sarah Brahim, Soft Machines Far Away Engines, 2021. (Courtesy: Canvas and Diriyah Biennale Foundation)

Ayman Zedani 

‘The Return of the Old Ones’ 

“The construction and consumption of nature in the Gulf are central” to Zedani’s “exploration process,” the show brochure states. “His projects serve as platforms inviting the public to observe the symbiosis between human and non-human elements.” This experimental film offers “a poetic perspective from a non-human entity,” according to the artist’s website, “weaving factual information with a science fiction narrative to explore the story of oil through the life, death, and resurrection of ancient giant fungi known as Prototaxites,” remnants of which “have only been found in a few places in the world, including Saudi Arabia and the US.” The story, “reminds us that fossil fuels comes from ancient life forms that have been crushed down into raw black energy.” 

Ayman Zedani's The Return of the Old Ones. (Supplied)

Shadia Alem 

‘Negatives, no more’ 

Alem’s installation consists of thousands of photo negatives hand-stitched together and covering 20 years of her and her sister’s life from 1985-2005, as well as larger DVD images. It symbolizes the difficulty of being both an artist and a woman in the Kingdom at that time. “In the world’s conscience, we remained indifferently invisible and when accidentally subjected to the media’s light, we were outlined as passive, veiled/ negatives without prints,” Alem writes on her website. “Nonetheless, we were there all along, actively creating, struggling, weaving our lives … Nowadays, we reached a point in our history where all is changed … we rode the tide casting away the darkness overshadowing our identities.”  

Shadia Alem's No Negatives, No More. (Supplied)

 

Topics: Art of the Kingdom

Saudi-born American author Natasha Burge: ‘I wanted to celebrate autistic linguistic traits’

Saudi-born American author Natasha Burge: ‘I wanted to celebrate autistic linguistic traits’
Updated 11 January 2025
Jasmine Bager
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Saudi-born American author Natasha Burge: ‘I wanted to celebrate autistic linguistic traits’

Saudi-born American author Natasha Burge: ‘I wanted to celebrate autistic linguistic traits’
  • The Saudi-born American autistic author on how her condition has influenced her work 
Updated 11 January 2025
Jasmine Bager

DHAHRAN: The first thing you notice when you meet Dhahran-based American author Natasha Burge are her playful eyeglass frames and her focused curiosity. 

Burge self-identifies as an “autistic author” — a label she finds neither empowering nor offensive. When she was diagnosed as being on the spectrum in her late thirties, she says she felt relief. And then she decided that she wanted to showcase her autism in her work. 

“For much of my life I felt embarrassed about the ways autism impacts me,” she says. “I didn’t feel like I was able to do what was considered ‘normal’ and I hid my struggles because I didn’t think anyone would understand,” she says. “I felt vulnerable sharing things I had kept hidden for so long. But, as a writer, my allegiance is to the story I am telling. 

“A defining feature of autism is an extreme focus on specific interests. Three of my most intense interests are autism, transcultural identity, and the culture of the Arabian Gulf,” she continues. 

Burge was born in Dhahran in 1982. The Kingdom is not just ‘home’ to her — it’s a living, breathing force in her storytelling.  

The Burge family in Ras Tanura in 1959 - Natasha's father Rodney is on the right of the front row. (Supplied)

“My childhood smelled of horses, tack soap, ‘oud, frangipani blossoms and the library,” she says. “My childhood tasted like French fries dipped in hummus, yellow cake topped with chocolate frosting, and late-night shawarmas eaten with friends in my garage.” 

Her family’s connections to Saudi Arabia go back well beyond the 1980s, she explains. Her paternal grandfather relocated to the Kingdom from the US for work in 1957. He was joined in 1959 by his wife and children, including Burge’s father, Rodney, who was five at the time. Rodney ended up staying in Saudi Arabia for 60 years. Burge’s mother’s family, also American, arrived in the 1970s. 

“Three generations of my family, on both sides, have lived in the Kingdom. It has profoundly shaped my family and we are grateful for that. My grandmother — who is now 99 — says she would have loved to stay here forever,” Burge says. 

Having moved away from the Kingdom for school, Burge now lives back in Dhahran with her British-American husband, who also grew-up here. 

Burge’s writing — which has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize (a US award given to literary works from small publishers) and translated into Arabic, Japanese and Chinese — does not follow conventional storytelling structures. It is highly experimental, packed with sensory imagery and acute attention to detail. Burge coined the term “skoliogeography” (the Greek word skolio can mean ‘twisted’ or ‘divergent’) to describe how she experiences space as an autistic person — blending the physical and emotional. 

The cover of Burge's 2023 memoir 'Drifts.' (Supplied)

“Instead of downplaying autistic linguistic traits — repetition, non-linear chronology, echolalia, bricolage, fragmentation — as merely signs of pathology, I wanted to showcase them and celebrate them as exciting artistic interventions,” she says. 

She describes her 2024 novel “The Way Out” as “a surreal portrait of a young woman’s psychological journey that could have been set anywhere in the world; I chose the Gulf because that is where I’ve lived all my life. There are a vast array of stories that emerge from this place that do not conform to outsider clichés.” 

While there’s an obvious temptation to describe Burge’s work — and life — as ‘a cultural bridge,’ as her previous statement suggests, that’s not her intention. Rather, she sees the central purpose of her work to be about authenticity. 

“All we can ever do is speak for ourselves. Individual authors can’t speak on behalf of every single person in an entire culture or place — nor even for the autism community,” she says. 

“I hope readers come away from my work with a new appreciation of how much there is to marvel at in the mundane,” she continues. “The streets we walk every day are places of sublime beauty — if we are ready to recognize it.” 

Film Review: ‘Confess, Fletch’

Film Review: ‘Confess, Fletch’
Updated 10 January 2025
Jasmine Bager
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Film Review: ‘Confess, Fletch’

Film Review: ‘Confess, Fletch’
  • In this story, Fletch, a former investigative journalist and current freelancer, is hired by a billionaire Italian count to investigate the whereabouts of his valuable art collection, which suddenly goes missing
Updated 10 January 2025
Jasmine Bager

Jon Hamm, renowned for his role in “Mad Men, steps into the elegant shoes of Irwin Maurice “Fletch” Fletcher in “Confess, Fletch,” a 2022 film that modernizes the classic 1980s character — which is based on a novel from the 1970s — originally portrayed twice by the beloved Chevy Chase.

In this story, Fletch, a former investigative journalist and current freelancer, is hired by a billionaire Italian count to investigate the whereabouts of his valuable art collection, which suddenly goes missing.

In true Italian fashion, Fletch falls in love with his boss’ daughter, Angela, while in Rome, and things get even more complicated when her father, the count who hired Fletch, goes missing.

The plot thickens further when Fletch finds the dead body of a mysterious woman at the luxury townhouse he is renting in Boston — a place Angela found for him. Fletch becomes the prime suspect in that murder investigation while simultaneously trying to recover the stolen paintings and salvage his now-strained relationship with the secretive and passionate Angela.

Jon Hamm as Irwin Maurice “Fletch” Fletcher.

The film offers several laugh-out-loud moments, particularly thanks to Fletch’s dry wit and the quirky characters he encounters. Some of the dialogue is cringey and goofy but presented in such an endearing way that you don’t even mind it.

Directed by Greg Mottola, this version of “Fletch” dials down the slapstick humor of the Chase versions in favor of dry wit and sharp dialogue. Hamm brings a suave, albeit slightly arrogant energy to the role, skillfully balancing irreverence with understated charisma.

Respected actress Marcia Gay Harden plays the count’s wife, Angela’s stepmother. Sadly, her stellar performance is overshadowed by her misstep in terrible accent work, which distracts from an otherwise competent portrayal of a key character in the film. Despite this, the other supporting performances in general remain strong, including the sergeant inspector — who often has his baby on his hip — and the junior detective who is trying, and sometimes failing, to prove herself.

Fletch also encounters a strange neighbor, a woman with an eccentric dog, whose odd behavior and mysterious presence add another layer of intrigue to the film. Meanwhile, Fletch’s rental house — where the dead body was found — showcases its own oddities, with the owner sneaking into the property unannounced and beating up Fletch — further fueling Fletch’s suspicion, and ours, about the situation.

Ultimately, “Confess, Fletch” offers a fresh and charming take on a beloved character. While its tone and pacing are more relaxed than its predecessors, it offers an enjoyable viewing experience for those who appreciate subtle humor and character-driven comedy.
 

Topics: film review

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