Writers from United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates
2018 Resident

Eman ALYOUSUF  م. إيمان اليوسف  (fiction writer, journalist; United Arab Emirates), a chemical engineer by training, is the author of three short story anthologies and three novels; Haris al-Shams [The Sun’s Guardian] won the 2016 Emirates Novel Awards. Her short film Ghafa was screened at the 2017 Dubai International Film Festival. A columnist and editor at AlRoeya newspaper, she has published a collection of interviews with female Emirati writers, and promotes literary culture at home and abroad. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department.

United Arab Emirates
2021 Resident

Salha OBAID صالحة عبيد  (fiction; UAE) published her first story collection, [Alzheimer],in 2010; it was followed by [Postman of Happiness] (2012) and [iPad of Life in the Manner of Zorba] (2014); the collection [An Implicitly White Lock of Hair] (2015) won the 2016 Al Owais Award for Creative Writing. Her first novel [Maybe It’s a Joke] appeared in 2018. A member of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority Council and of the Association of Emirati Women Writers, in 2017 she was awarded the Young Emiratis Prize. Her participation was made possible by a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.  

ALSHAALI_cropped
United Arab Emirates
2023 Resident

Ali ALSHAALI علي الشعالي  (poet, editor, publisher; United Arab Emirates), an engineer by training, is the author of five poetry collections, a collection of essays, and  the novel [The Live Living], which won the Al-Owais Creative Award and a nomination for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. With long experience in literary management, he currently heads up the Al Hudhud Publishing Group. His participation was made possible by the U.S. Consulate General in Dubai

Happening Now

  • Congratulations to our colleagues Jennifer Croft and Aron Aji, who are among those serving as judges for the National Book Awards this year, in their case in the category of translated literature.

  • Ranjit Hoskote’s speech at the 2024 Goa Literary Festival addresses the current situation in Gaza.

  • In NY Times, Bina Shah worries about the state of Pakistani—and American—democracy.

  • “I went to [Ayodhya] to think about what it means to be an Indian and a Hindu... ”  A new essay by critic and novelist Chandrahas Choudhury.

  • In the January 2024 iteration of the French/English non-fiction site Frictions, T J Benson writes about “Riding Afrobeats Across the World.” Also new, a next installment in the bilingual series featuring work by students from Paris VIII’s Creative Writing program and the University of Iowa’s NFW program.

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