10 Authors To Look Out For At The Emirates Lit Fest 2023

Running from 1st-6th February 2023, the Emirates Literature Festival returns with a mega lineup of over 250 authors, writers and literary speakers who will all be flocking to Dubai for the annual event. Dubai’s biggest annual literary event has been attracting renowned names from the writing industry, across fiction and non-fiction titles for 15 years running.

The 2023 Emirates Literature Festival will take place at the InterContinental in Festival City and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library this year, where reading enthusiasts will have the chance to meet their favorite authors, attend book readings, enter writing competitions and attend discussion panels.

“Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is so much more than an annual highlight on the cultural calendar,” said Ahlam Bolooki, Emirates Airline Festival of Literature Festival Director in a released statement. “The festival promotes reading as a life-changing habit and culture as a fundamental right. Over the past 15 years, the festival has contributed to raising awareness about the role of literature in understanding the world, each other, and in embracing our differences before our similarities. The festival has the ability to bring together the best of all cultures in order to make a real difference in the world,” he added.

Here are 10 confirmed authors expected to be at the 2023 edition of the Emirates Literature Festival…

By Amrita Singh

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Hala Kazim

Hala Kazim is a counsellor, artist, author and founder of Journey Through Change, a positive transformation program. She was the first Emirati and Arab to devise a transformational program for women, and published her first book “Hala and Change” in early 2015 and her second book “Hala and Life” in 2017.

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Cecilia Ahern

Irish novelist, Cecilia Ahern’s books have been translated into 35 languages and have sold more than 25 million copies in over fifty countries. Two of her books, “P.S I Love You” and “Love, Rosie” have been adapted as films and she has created several TV series. Her latest novel is “Freckles.”

3 of 10

Rawda Al Haj

Rawda Al Haj is a Sudanese poet, politician and media personality and is the first Sudanese poet whose poems were included as part of the Arabic Language Education curriculum, both at the school and postgraduate level, in Sudan and other Arab countries. She is currently the President of the ISESCO Women Poets Forum.

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David Walliams

David Walliams has revolutionized reading for children and has become one of the most influential children’s writers today. Since the publication of his ground-breaking first novel, “The Boy in the Dress,” Walliams has seen unprecedented growth with global sales exceeding 50 million copies, and his books translated into 54 languages across 34 titles. He will be hosting a number of fun filled book readings perfect for the whole family at the Emirates Literature Festival 2023.

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Brian Cox

From Hannibal Lecter in “Manhunter” to media magnate Logan Roy in HBO’s “Succession,” Brian Cox is an actor of unparalleled distinction and versatility, but few know his extraordinary life story. He will be at the literature festival with his seminal autobiography “Putting the Rabbit in the Hat”- a rags-to-riches life story like no other.

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Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid is the author of the international bestsellers “Exit West” and “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” which were both finalists for the Man Booker Prize. His first novel, “Moth Smoke,” won the Betty Trask Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award. His essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, and elsewhere.

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Avni Doshi

Avni Doshi is the author of “Burnt Sugar,” which was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize and is being translated into more than 20 languages. Born in New Jersey and is currently based in Dubai, she won the 2013 Tibor Jones South Asia Prize and a Charles Pick Fellowship at the University of East Anglia in 2014.

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Barkha Dutt

One of India's best-known journalists and the Founding-Editor of “Mojo Story,” a multi-media digital platform, Barkha Dutt has 25 years of reporting experience and has reported from war zones and conflict areas across the world. Most recently, she won global acclaim for her breaking reportage of the pandemic through travels across India. She is also a columnist in the Washington Post. Dutt is the author of two books – “To Hell & Back: Humans of Covid” and “This Unquiet Land: Stories from India's Fault Lines.”

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Lord Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer is a bestselling author, with sales of over 275 million copies in 97 countries and 51 languages. He is the only author ever to have been a no.1 bestseller in fiction (nineteen times), short stories (four times) and non-fiction (The Prison Diaries). As a former politician, Archer has served five years in the House of Commons and 30 years as a Member of the House of Lords.

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Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of over 100 books on a wide array of subjects, including the award-winning “The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series, which has sold over 20 million copies in the English language alone. He is also the author of the Isabel Dalhousie novels, and the world’s longest-running serial novel “44 Scotland Street.” Most recently he published the Detective Varg series of Scandi ‘blanc’ novels set in Sweden. His books have been translated into 46 languages.

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Art & Books

10 Authors To Look Out For At The Emirates Lit Fest 2023

Hala Kazim

Cecilia Ahern

Rawda Al Haj

David Walliams

Brian Cox

Mohsin Hamid

Avni Doshi

Barkha Dutt

Lord Jeffrey Archer

Alexander McCall Smith

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