Emirates Litfest Student Edition now available for schools

The Emirates Literature Foundation has unveiled its education programme for the upcoming Emirates LitFest Students Edition and begun ticket sales.

Building on the success of the virtual programme in 2021, the schedule for 2022 will feature a great line-up of virtual sessions made available to schools for one month, from 10th February to 10th March. There is a nominal fee per school, rather than per student, which makes the virtual programme more accessible to everyone, including those located too far away to make it to the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in person.

Designed to be engaging and interactive, students have been asked to submit their questions in advance for authors to answer.

Ahlam Bolooki, Festival Director, said, “We are always looking at how we can make our festival and our education programme more inclusive and more accessible. While it was the pandemic that made us pivot to a virtual programme, the feedback we received this year from schools was amazing. By removing the travel time and the need for individual tickets for each student, we reached an even greater number of students, including those distance learning. We are thrilled with the line-up of authors for this year’s Emirates LitFest Student Edition, and I am confident that they will inspire young people across the country.”

Schools can choose between a group of five English sessions, five Arabic sessions, or both languages. During the month, the school can show each session as many times as they want, in different classes, at assemblies, or as a view-at home-task discussed later in class.

The English language sessions feature authors of all ages, including Polly Dunbar (age 4+), Layne Redman (age 6+), Erin Entrada Kelly (age 9+), Nayanika Mahtani (age 12+), and Carlos Andres Gomez (age 15+).

Arabic language sessions feature Julnar Haju (age 4+), Nadia Al Najjar (age 6+), Ali Ashoor (age 9+), Sahar Naja Mahfouz (12+), and Hadil Ghoneim (age 15+).

There will also be a small number of education programme sessions on-site at the festival in Habtoor City for school trips. Each school will be limited to a maximum of 30 tickets on a first-come, first-serve basis. The festival is being held from 3rd to 13th February across Hilton Dubai Al Habtoor City, Habtoor Palace Dubai, and V Hotel Dubai.

School competitions, including the Emirates NBD Poetry For All, RGS Guildford Dubai Children’s Letter Writing, Chevron Readers’ Cup, and the Story Writing competitions, will celebrate the winners at the festival.

School Librarian of the Year for 2022 will also be crowned at a special awards ceremony.

WAM