Known as Bodour, Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi is the founding CEO of Kalimat Group in the United Arab Emirates. Its original imprint, Kalimat, founded in 2007, is the first publishing house dedicated to the production of Arabic titles for children. Horouf Publishing has followed as the group’s second imprint, focusing on a digitally developed educational initiative. A third imprint, Rewayat, is aimed at adolescent and adult readers.
Bodour’s influence is now being felt far beyond the Gulf region. She spoke at the 31st International Publishers Congress in London this month; ran a full slate of meetings at London Book Fair on the Sharjah Book Authority stand; and on April 28 will address the Publishers’ Forum in Berlin on publishing in the Arab world—both the opportunities and controversies. By the time she left London, Bodour had announced a partnership with London’s Quarto Group: in 2017 a new imprint called Kalimat Quarto will start distributing cookbooks in Arabic throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Much more than a businesswoman, Bodour may be the best friend that Arabic authors could have. Leading the way on professionalizing her region’s industry as founder and patron of the Emirates Publishers Association, she has created a 1,001 Titles campaign to bring that many new works to market by 2017.
“The promotion of reading, literacy, and a passion for books is something that runs in Sharjah’s blood,” she told us in London. Her father, Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, launched his own book, Under the Flag of Occupation, at an event last week at Claridge’s in London. “I’ve inherited his passion,” Bodour says, “for the written word, seeing the difference it can make in people’s lives.”
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
