The ‘1001 Titles’ initiative, held as part of the cultural programme of the 40th edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) brought together publishers, writers, and illustrators in a session to discuss ways of cooperation in developing the production of creative publications. The international book fair, organized by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) under the theme There’s always a right book, began on November 3, 2021, at the Expo Centre Sharjah, and will run until November 13.
The session included dozens of bilateral meetings over a period of 90 minutes, during which a number of writers and illustrators presented their works to a group of publishers. The participants in the session also exchanged experiences and ideas to enrich the book publishing industry in the country and contribute to the development of the production of literary publications.
Majd Al Shehhi, manager of the ‘1001 Titles’ initiative says, “The initiative is interested in publishing high-quality books by helping writers, publishers, and everyone who works in the book industry to find good content in the UAE by adopting many creative ideas by writers or illustrators and presenting them to the public.”
“These sessions that we organize constantly enable us to reach out to the creators who we are keen to support, in addition to their important role in providing the writer with the opportunity to meet the publisher and present him with his work, thereby establishing a good rapport between all parties involved in the literary industry,” she explains.
Author and trainer of creative thinking for children Haya Al-Qassem speaks of this session of the ‘1001 Titles’ initiative which is characterized by content that suits the minds of readers and its selection of topics that the society needs today. “As a writer, I presented my books and ideas to a group of popular local and Arab publishing houses, and through my meetings with them, we laid out an initial platform for future cooperation and I hope that it will be crowned with success,” she adds with an air of optimism.
In turn, Fida Shtayyeh, Executive Director of Sununu Publishing House, says, “I started my publishing career as a writer, and my first launch was through the ‘1001 Titles’ initiative, which supported my book and gave me an opportunity to launch myself as a writer. This gave me confidence to self publish in 2018. The initiative got me acquainted with a creative Emirati painter and we discussed some ideas that I needed in the publishing house. Hopefully we may work in tandem on a book that will be released soon.”
For his part, painter Issa Al-Nuaimi feels that the initiative has made a marked impression through its activities and events, being in constant contact with painters and through many sessions, forums, and workshops with writers and publishing houses, to engage with them and show them samples of drawings from previous books or models of new drawings. Al-Nuaimi adds, “During this session, I had discussed with some writers and publishing houses the artistic ideas they need, and I believe that these ideas will help in collaborative projects with them in future, and I hope that the results will be beneficial for everyone.”
‘1001 Titles’ is an initiative of the Sharjah-based Knowledge without Borders (KwB) project to boost the UAE’s contribution to Arab culture by supporting local authors and publishers.
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