Alia Al Shamsi at a Neutrogena event
Alia Al Shamsi is an Emarati Italian author whose career started as a photojournalist travelling the world before settling back in Dubai and teaching photography at the American University of Sharjah.
With a BA in Photography from Griffith University, Australia and MA in Photo-Image from Durham University, UK, Alia’s work has been exhibited internationally alongside renowned art photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron and Cindy Sherman, as well as her works being a part of the UAE Embassy in Washington DC private collection and displayed at Rove Hotels – and these are just a couple of her many accolades.
Now having released her latest body of literary work, Alia Al Shamsi takes readers on a poetic journey through moments of introspection. In her poems are heart-felt musings of life events, detailing the trials and tribulations of past relationships and her personal development through these lived experiences. Her new anthology, “The Ocean Sees Through My Soul,” covers many facets, sharing intimate feelings of heartbreak, frustration, powerlessness, self-reflection and redemption. Alia writes with hard-won optimism and a mature hopefulness to find meaning in life’s unexpected moments.
“Jotted down in the privacy of my diaries across a period of ten years, this book is made up of little parts of me, in every poem a little story of a place, a time and an emotion gone by. Written as therapy, the book follows my personal journey through finding strength in my own vulnerability,” says Alia.
“The Ocean Sees Through My Soul” is the fourth book written by Al Shamsi and the first book dedicated to an adult audience with her past releases being for children. Previous books include “Alayah,” for which she received the first Dubai Culture Publishing Award, “Night and Day,” one of the UAE’s first three silent books published in 2018 and “You Are Made of Stars,” an exercise book with Kharirifa Majirifa – a collection of reimagined folklore stories written by a group of Emirati authors.
“The Ocean Sees Through My Soul” is currently available for pre-order in both Arabic and English here.
