When Isobel Abulhoul, director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (EAFL) and co-founder and director of the bookshop chain Magrudy's, received an email from popular thriller writer Jeffery Deaver in November 2010, she knew that the success of the festival - which had been launched the year before - was sealed. "Jeffery had been selected to write the latest James Bond book, Carte Blanche, by the Fleming estate," says Isobel. "He wrote part of the action in ‘Project X', as it was called then, as if it takes place in Dubai. He wanted to know how I felt about launching the title and the cover of the book in the city. I immediately went to Emirates and we were all like ‘wow!'"
On January 17, 2011, the day the title and artwork were launched in Dubai and announced worldwide, Isobel received a call from BBC World Radio. "They asked me how much the author had been paid for this," she laughs. "They seemed to think that to get yourself into a James Bond book you've got to pay!" Isobel explained that Deaver's previous visit to Dubai for the Emirates Airline Literature Festival had been enough to spark his, and many other authors', imagination. "We bring great writers and thinkers from around the world to the emirate; these are the movers and shakers of society," she says. "They observe and take away their thoughts, which will come out later in articles, books and reviews and help to drive public opinion."
Of love and literature
In the UAE since 1968 when she ventured here from her native UK to work as a school teacher, Isobel married Abdullah Abulhoul and settled down in Dubai. Not content to sit at home, she started Magrudy's in 1975 as a toy shop for children when she couldn't find educational toys for her kids. It soon started stocking books and today it even has a publishing wing.
The love of books was what led her to found the EAFL in 2009. The first edition attracted 65 authors and more than 20,000 visitors. The fourth edition this year boasts 138 authors.
"The dream we had when launching EAFL has become reality," says Isobel. "I am amazed when I think back to those days; it was an ambitious concept to say the least. The reality is that we've delivered and anyone who asks how, the answer is ‘we really don't know'! Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time."
Bringing pens to paper
It is the authors who have really brought the festival's blank pages to life. "We've been so lucky in that very big-name authors have found something in our festival that's unique and have been touched by it. That's why they've agreed to join us," says Isobel.
"It's those wonderful writers who are passionate in the same way we are about the written word. They've realised that we are true to our vision of helping bring literature to life and making it enjoyable; making it fun. They share that, and they have come and have been entranced by Dubai."
Authors visiting the festival have been so taken with Dubai, in fact, that several of them have featured the city in their next books. "It is testament to the fact that they've seen something that they didn't know was here and they have had to write about it," says Isobel.
Isobel says Peter James has included Dubai in his latest book, Perfect People, along with authors Anthony Horowitz, and Caroline Lawrence, in addition to Deaver. "And we didn't know about it until they were published," she says. "In fact, Darren Shan, the hugely popular children's author who came to our festival in 2010, is returning this year, because he said, ‘Your audiences are so special.' I picked up his latest book last year and found that it was dedicated to our festival. That's really magical."
Telling Dubai's story
That the EAFL is helping to positively promote the world-view of Dubai is one of the happy by-products of the festival, feels Isobel.
"We don't believe in spin. We're inviting people we consider are valuable, great thinkers and writers, and letting them make up their own minds. What they write is up to them. But if they have a good experience, if we open the doors for them, then they'll see what is good about Dubai, and that's a huge benefit." Surprisingly, the festival has become a platform on which to teach its featured authors something, as well as the other way around.
"We felt that by bringing the authors here, the community would benefit but the bit that I didn't realise personally was how much we're educating the authors. In many cases they said they were completely ignorant about this part of the world. Education is a two-way stream. So it's fabulous. We're in a very good place!"
And the EAFL is now literally in a good place too, in Dar Al Adaab (House of Literature), in the Bastakiya area of Bur Dubai, which has become the festival's home for all but the five days that it is on at Al Mamzar & Intercontinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City. This is its new, permanent headquarters from which it can operate and hold smaller events year-round.
"As the Bastakiya has become the arts and culture hub, that's where we decided to go; and when I went into the Dar Al Adaab I knew this would be our home. One of the walls of house number 45 is the wall of the square, and I thought it would be a magical place to have open-air sessions in the winter months."
That's where the first open-door event with Peter James was hosted in 2011. "Now we're able to be open all the time with celebrations, hosting visiting authors, local authors, giving them a platform for their voices to be heard," says Isobel. "This will be positioned as the open-door series as opposed to the festival. The idea is that we should grow this organically."
Opening books for everyone
"It's not just about bringing authors from abroad. It's about bringing to this melting pot some strong and positive influences, which include authors from abroad, so that we can focus on love of the written and spoken word, literacy, education and finding our own talent and our voice."
There is also a huge emphasis on Arabic literature because, she says, it is critical that "Arab voices be heard."
Isobel's plans also include competitions in schools, book groups, plays, poetry and musical evenings. "I had a lady wanting to do a series on critical thinking!" she enthuses. "Experimental drama groups, young people, those with special needs... we'll cater to everybody."
Isobel is aware that she might seem too ambitious, but she has her feet firmly on the ground. "Five days in a year for an international festival is fantastic, but it's not enough for lovers of the written word," she insists.
"We now have the opportunity to continue and grow into a real literary hub. We'll do creative writing workshops, drama workshops, classes in conversational Arabic, because all of these things are about communication, about language. That's the identity we're giving the EAFL, and all our events will be shaped by it."
The idea is that an enthusiast who comes to the festival and is inspired will now be able to take his or her ideas further. "This is the springboard to find our own voices," she says. "There's a lot of talent here that needs to be spotted and developed."
Isobel issues an open invitation to any author who's written a book and is living in the UAE: "Please feel free to get in touch and we will try and find a slot for you," she says. "But my advice to all emerging authors is to promote themselves through any medium. For example, if you decided to have a session at the open-door venue, the only way you're going to get the audience is by promoting it yourself. And all authors I've met, including JK Rowling, work tirelessly to make sure they have an audience. You have to push and you have to call in every favour. Only then will people come along and you have a good crowd."
Learning and fun
Education is an intrinsic part of the EAFL, says Isobel. "Our initial focus was on education and literacy, and it still is. I am delighted that the Knowledge and Human Development Agency (KHDA) is one of our sponsors."
EAFL began the thrust into education with a short story competition at the first festival. "We added the Boeing Readers' Cup in the third edition in 2011: an inter-school competition whereby students read selected books of authors who're attending and compete on answering questions about them," says Isobel. "This year we're having it in Arabic. We have also introduced the Taaleem Poetry Competition this time. Students between the ages of eight and 23 in full-time education entered a poem written by them, in either English or Arabic.
"We have two Education Days during the festival when authors go out to UAE schools to spread the word and inspire students."
For Isobel, "Children are what matter, they are the future. We are a part of society and we all have a responsibility toward it," she says. Isobel's message and that of the EAFL is one of relevance to everyone. "You can't ignore the need to help society. It is a debt. You have to make things better for others. That's what we hope to do."
