Fatima Atfa (Abu Dhabi)
The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair witnessed a session entitled: “Horizons of Emirati Literature,” organized by the “Literary Forum Salon” with: writer, poet, and visual artist Maysoon Saqr Al Qasimi, Dr. Sultan Al Amimi, President of the Emirates Writers and Writers Union, novelist Dr. Hamad Al Hammadi, novelist Jamal Matar, novelist Reem Al Kamali, novelist Saleha Obaid, and writer and publisher Jamal Al Shehhi. The dialogue session was moderated by Asmaa Siddiq Al Mutawa, founder of the forum, where she welcomed the audience and asked: Do we have what we can call a school of Emirati literature? What are its characteristics, like the Naguib Mahfouz school of realism and the schools of magical realism in Latin America? The question about the school raises another question about the role of Emirati writers in encouraging the next generation of young writers.
Writing is a personal project
Dr. spoke. Al-Amimi said: I think the issue tends to the individual side and not the collective side. Al-Amimi wondered: How many writers are aware that writing does not depend on awards, but rather is an individual project, and great writers do not pay attention to awards, and regarding the issue of awards, they have incorrect concepts. Some of them, after receiving an award, may stop writing, but I believe that… I said that writing is a personal project.
Maysoon Saqr said: We started with the founding of the union with a revolution of storytellers, but this project disappeared after a while, and among its symbols were Maryam Jumaa, Abdul Hamid Ahmed, Abdullah Saqr, Nasser Al Dhaheri, and literature was strongly discussed, but after that the space for poetry began to grow, and then the novel also began to appear. Attendance, and there were several awards that encouraged the novel to emerge strongly. Al Qasimi continued, saying: I have great hope for the new generations, whether at the level of presentation, where we now have diversity in the idea of the novel, or at the level of the abundance of writers and their excellence.
Patience and accumulation
Dr. spoke. Hamad Al-Hammadi emphasized that literature is an individual work, and official institutions can support the writer and the intellectual, and the goal that the writer must focus on in order to truly win comes from the reading public. What is important is that the writer has a literary project that pushes it to be highlighted, because cultural work is a very slow act that requires… Patience and accumulation. In turn, Salha Obaid discussed the idea of institutions and supporting the writer, pointing out that there is no shortage in all programs, but the problem lies in the awareness of the individual, and we can be part of the world, because I find Emirati literature through the Arabic language first, and then comes the role of other languages, And it’s necessary. Writer and publisher Jamal Al Shehhi stressed that the Emirati writer has become outside the local scope, and pointed out that the Emirati publisher is modest and there is no special award for Emiratis for publishing, indicating that there was an Emirates Novel Award that lasted for 4 years, but it stopped, and we must start creating the writer and publisher.
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