In a talk with Flora Rees of the Emirates Literature Foundation, we hear a new commitment to developing writers’ skills and resources for an emerging literary market
A year ago, we brought you a writeup from our conversation with Flora Rees, head of education and publishing with the Dubai-based Emirates Literature Foundation (ELF) since 2016, at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. We introduced some of the issues facing the author corps in the United Arab Emirates, where the concept of editing is a relatively new one and literary agent representation is sparse.
As opposed to Lebanon or Egypt, where strong, mature traditions of writing and publishing are in place, Rees says, “The UAE is among the newest of the Arab world countries” to focus consciously on building its literary life. Also, a careerist approach among authors has been established for much longer in the West than in the emerging ranks of some of the new authors in the Gulf. Although the UAE has the well-followed award programs Sheikh Zayed Book Award and International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), and both programs carry generous purses and translation funding for their author-winners, the career advancement captured by the few who win these honors is a long way from the quiet, often unguided, efforts made by authors trying to enter the literary world and develop their careers at early stages.
In the past year, the ELF—which serves writers working in both English and Arabic—has become very busy offering sessions and events to build both community and writing standards simultaneously. We asked if Rees is working with writers primarily on being edited or editing themselves, and her answer was “Both: we’ve found that there’s a tremendous amount of self-publishing going on.” When offering creative writing programs in Arabic, Rees finds considerable interest among writers in editing best practices.
Meanwhile, distribution remains challenging in many Arab markets, Rees says, and needs attention alongside efforts to get Arabic work translated into other languages and into international markets.
Bottom line: The Arab world’s author- and publishing-development efforts are ramping up, and the emirate Sharjah is this year’s UNESCO World Book Capital. Furthermore, it was just announced that Sharjah will be the London Book Fair’s Market Focus nation for 2020. A program of Arabic literature development begun in 2017 called the 1,001 Titles initiative—an attempt to release just over 1,000 new works in Arabic in two years—currently has some 120 authors active in the effort. In terms of Emirati ISBNs, the numbers show a rising level of publication over 10 years. Using ISBN publication records provided to us by the Emirates Publishers Association, we count 15,410 total titles published in the United Arab Emirates from 2009 to 2018.
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.
