Al Ain Joins Literary Trail With Book Fair Next Month

In our part of the world, to satisfy this autumn high appetite for reading, Kitab is launching the Al Ain Book Fair.

A joint venture company between the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) and the Frankfurt Book Fair, Kitab is, in fact, the organiser of Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.

Unlike the fair in the capital, the Al Ain event is designed for local publishers only.

“We already have an international book fair in Abu Dhabi and since Al Ain is part of the same emirate we wanted to introduce the love for reading to this cultural city, but from a different approach,” explained Irum Fawad, marketing and PR manager of Kitab.

Dubbed as ‘Al Ain Reads’, the week-long fair will start right in time to help students find their new reading material, from October 4, at the Bawadi Mall.

So far 25 publishers in the UAE have confirmed their participation and registration is still open. Although the fair will focus on young readers, there will be books for every age and taste, in both Arabic and English languages.

From morning to evening throughout the fair days there will be cultural programmes, mostly designed for young visitors.

Children’s ‘bed time stories’ will be told in the mornings, from a selection of Arabian, Asian and European tales, while a professional story teller will concentrate on Emirati folk tales. Book binding may be a little too much, but the programme will include making bookmarks using traditional weaving methods.

‘Colour Abu Dhabi’, also for children, is an illustration workshop, where young creative minds will be able to come up with their own character.

For both the young and not so young, the Kitab Book Exchange programme will allow visitors to bring in a book and swap it for another.

“We are planning to make the Al Ain Book Fair an annual event, although the dates will change slightly, so that they do not clash with holidays,” pointed out Fawad.

In the meantime, the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF), which will take place on March 2-7, is ‘right on track’. Last spring, the fair attracted 637 publishers and Kitab is convinced the numbers will grow.

“We already have 200-plus publishers who have booked their space and we still have seven months to go,” said Fawad.

In fact, ADIBF will become even bigger next year, as the fair itself is booked for a larger area at the Abu Dhabi Exhibition Centre.

Many of the last edition’s favourites will return, including book signing by international authors, the antique book fair and the cook book show. New events will also be added, especially in the field of e-service programmes.

silvia@khaleejtimes.com