16 February 2025

Reading Group: Eco/Sci/Fi

Jameel Library Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai

Jameel Library's themed reading group sessions provide participants with science fiction writing that explores themes within and around ecology. Each session has a different group leader, whose aim is to foster a discussion around sustainability, environmental issues and technology within [ ... ]

Free, but pre-register

Emirates LitFest

InterContinental Dubai Festival City Dubai

LitFest is back for its 15th year, bigger and broader than ever. As always there a heady mix of the popular and the more cerebral, with an impressive roster of more than 250 award-winning authors, experts and just plain interesting [ ... ]

AED 60

Connecting Minds Book Club: Ben Okri

Terra Auditorium Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion, Expo City, Dubai

“Books alone can’t save the world,” says the blurb for this new book club. “But passionate readers can.” At the opening event of what we’re told will be a regular LitFest-style session with “renowned authors from around the world”, the [ ... ]

AED 50

SAF Book Club: Readings on diaspora and migration

Al Mureijah Square Sharjah

This SAF Book Club meeting begins with a tour of the current Al Mureijah Art Spaces exhibition, the rather good In the Heart of Another Country. The show is about diaspora and migration, and that's the theme of the book [ ... ]

Free, but pre-register

Summer Soliloquies: A Writers’ Soiree

421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

421’s first Writer’s Soiree promises a chance to meet and connect with other writers in Abu Dhabi – "an evening of food, reading, and greeting".

Free but pre-register

Letters of Light

Louvre Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

Held in partnership with Bibliothèque nationale de France and France Muséums, this exhibition will spotlight the Holy Books of the three Abrahamic religions – the Quran, the Christian Bible, and the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) – exploring the historical context in [ ... ]

AED 60

Connecting Minds Book Club: Sandra Piesik

Terra Auditorium Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion, Expo City, Dubai

The second outing for this now-regular LitFest-style session with “renowned authors from around the world” features the award-winning architect, author and scientist Sandra Piesik in conversation with urbanists and curators Ahmed and Rashid bin Shabib. The conversation will centre on [ ... ]

AED 50

Gentle Steps, Guided Words

Emirates Literature Foundation Dar Al Adaab, Al Shindagha, Dubai

A meditative walk followed by a writing workshop, organised by the Emirates Literature Foundation and dedicated to Emirates Red Crescent's Tarahum – for Gaza campaign. The start and end point is the ELF office in Al Shindagha; sign up for [ ... ]

Al Ain Book Festival 2023

Hazza bin Zayed Stadium Al Ain

The 14th edition of the former Al Ain Book Fair, organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre under the theme All Eyes on Al Ain, is open 9am to 10pm from 19 to 25 November. It celebrates literature with [ ... ]

Free
Event Series FOCAL POINT 2023

Focal Point 2023

Sharjah Art Foundation, Bait Obaid Al Shamsi Arts Square, Sharjah

The sixth edition of Sharjah Art Foundation’s Focal Point art book fair – the region’s only art book fair, we think – features local and international publishers with book launches, talks, workshops and musical performances during its run (24 to [ ... ]

Free, but pre-booking is required
Event Series FOCAL POINT 2023

Focal Point 2023

Sharjah Art Foundation, Bait Obaid Al Shamsi Arts Square, Sharjah

The sixth edition of Sharjah Art Foundation’s Focal Point art book fair – the region’s only art book fair, we think – features local and international publishers with book launches, talks, workshops and musical performances during its run (24 to [ ... ]

Free, but pre-booking is required
Event Series FOCAL POINT 2023

Focal Point 2023

Sharjah Art Foundation, Bait Obaid Al Shamsi Arts Square, Sharjah

The sixth edition of Sharjah Art Foundation’s Focal Point art book fair – the region’s only art book fair, we think – features local and international publishers with book launches, talks, workshops and musical performances during its run (24 to [ ... ]

Free, but pre-booking is required
Event Series FOCAL POINT 2023

Focal Point 2023

Sharjah Art Foundation, Bait Obaid Al Shamsi Arts Square, Sharjah

The sixth edition of Sharjah Art Foundation’s Focal Point art book fair – the region’s only art book fair, we think – features local and international publishers with book launches, talks, workshops and musical performances during its run (24 to [ ... ]

Free, but pre-booking is required
Event Series FOCAL POINT 2023

Focal Point 2023

Sharjah Art Foundation, Bait Obaid Al Shamsi Arts Square, Sharjah

The sixth edition of Sharjah Art Foundation’s Focal Point art book fair – the region’s only art book fair, we think – features local and international publishers with book launches, talks, workshops and musical performances during its run (24 to [ ... ]

Free, but pre-booking is required
Event Series FOCAL POINT 2023

Focal Point 2023

Sharjah Art Foundation, Bait Obaid Al Shamsi Arts Square, Sharjah

The sixth edition of Sharjah Art Foundation’s Focal Point art book fair – the region’s only art book fair, we think – features local and international publishers with book launches, talks, workshops and musical performances during its run (24 to [ ... ]

Free, but pre-booking is required

Bookish Winter Shopping Festival

Bookends Dubai Digital Park A3 Building, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai

A three-day fair/sale of pre-owned books all related to "the hobbies and passions of reading and books" and book-themed merchandise by local artisans, authors, and crafters . Bookends is open 10am to 10pm.

Free (unless you buy a book)

Emirates Litfest

Festival City Dubai

The UAE’s biggest and best literary event is back, with the usual cornucopia of writers, creators and thought leaders – a total of around 160 events at Festival City from 31 January to 6 February. The line-up includes the 2023 [ ... ]

[Various prices]

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale

Dubai Studio City Dubai

The self-styled "World’s Biggest Book Sale” is returning to Sound Stages, Dubai Studio City, from 1-10 March, open daily 10am to midnight with something like two million titles in various genres on sale at discounts of up to 75 percent [ ... ]

Free

The City and the Writer

The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

A celebration of multicultural, multilingual authorship; a diverse lineup of award-winning writers come together to celebrate and share their writing. The evening is inspired by the column “The City and the Writer” for Words without Borders magazine, the most important [ ... ]

Free, but pre-register

Writers’ Suhoor

421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Another of 421’s Ramadan specials – a gathering for wordsmiths to exchange writings, makes zines, and connect over food. “The perfect chance to share your experiences and exchange ideas while connecting with fellow writers who understand your unique journey ...” [ ... ]

Free, but pre-register

Writing Workshop | Object Lessons: Bad Diaspora Poems

Alserkal Arts Foundation Warehouse 50/51, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

Led by poet and researcher Momtaza Mehri, this writing workshop traces what diaspora means as a space of both collectivity and tension. Paryicipants are invited to "write around, and through, objects that represent the inward facing, closely-held relationship we have [ ... ]

Free, but pre-register

Dubai Bibliophiles Book Club – Toni Morrison’s Beloved

21grams Urban Balkan Bistro Meyan Mall, Al Thanyah St, Umm Suqeim 2, Dubai

The book group discusses what is arguably Morrison's finest literary work, a multi-layered attempt to give voice to the collective memory of African Americans that also explores notions of family, trauma, the repression of memory, and of course the restoration [ ... ]

Free, but pre-register

Al Ain Book Festival 2024

Hazza bin Zayed Stadium Al Ain

AABF has changed its nomenclature from 'book fair' to 'book festival' for 2024, but this is till an important date for Arab-language publishers – and the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), which organises it, has reported a "significant" increase [ ... ]

Free (we think)
Event Series FOCAL POINT 2023

Focal Point 2024

Sharjah Art Foundation, Bait Obaid Al Shamsi Arts Square, Sharjah

The seventh edition of Sharjah Art Foundation’s Focal Point art book fair – the region’s only art book fair, we think – features local and international publishers with book launches, talks, workshops and musical performances during its run (22 to [ ... ]

Free, but pre-register

Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial: Deepak Unnikrishnan

Abu Dhabi Main Bus Terminal Sultan Bin Zayed The First Street, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

As part of the Biennial, poet and writer Deepak Unnikrishnan will host a workshop for audiences aged over 18 at 3.30pm at the Abu Dhabi bus station.

Free

Pencil In

421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

We love this idea -- it's a writers’ group intended for writers to practice their craft without the pressures of producing a final outcome, designed to provide a supportive environment for writers to write alone yet in a group. You're [ ... ]

Free

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature

Festival City Dubai

The UAE’s biggest and best literary event is back at the newly renovated InterContinental Dubai Festival City, with the usual cornucopia of writers, creators and thought leaders – a total of around 150 events. That's slightly fewer than usual, and [ ... ]

[Various prices]

Pencil In

421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

We love this idea, and it's just the sort of thing that we'd hope for from an arts centre like 421. It's a writers’ group intended for writers to practice their craft without the pressures of producing a final outcome, [ ... ]

Free