Dubai: Digital pass launched for Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2022

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, one of the world’s leading literary festivals, has released its digital pass for the 2022 festival.

Festival director Ahlam Bolooki explained, "We have a fantastic programme of live events taking place at the hotels in Habtoor City, and we want to offer access to our festival to as many people as possible. With the pandemic still disrupting what we used to consider normal, we have selected a number of sessions to live stream that we believe will feed minds and souls, and give us all something to think and talk about for months to come."

Each year the Festival brings together speakers from different parts of the world and different walks of life on one stage, united in conversations. The digital pass selection includes many of these to allow a wider audience access to the fascinating dialogue live from home, and for the duration of the Festival.

Panel sessions that will be available virtually include "Between the Covers – Desire in Arab Writing" featuring Noor Naga and Selma Dabbagh; "Cooking the Classics - Creative Liberties" featuring Dr. Rupy Aujla and Zahra Abdalla; "Originality in Crime Fiction – A Stab in the Dark?" featuring Felicia Yap, Lucy Foley, Mark Billingham and Polly Phillips; "Inventions that Changed the World" featuring Ahmed El Ghandour, Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Technology, and Serhii Plokhy; and "Stigma in Art" featuring Dr. Habib Al Attar and Huda Al Khateeb.

This session is in Arabic.

Meanwhile, solo sessions will include "Jenny Lawson: Broken (In the Best Possible Way)"; "Rowan Hooper: How to Spend a Trillion Dollars"; "Rob Biddulph: Dog Gone"; "Omar Saif Ghobash in Conversation"; "Nostalgia Culture Panel: Mohammed Saeed Harib"; "Jessica Cerasi: Who’s afraid of Contemporary Art?"; and "Robin Dunbar: Friends".

Visitors will be required to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination, or a negative PCR taken within the previous 72 hours.