What makes Emirati identity? Is it memory, language, place, scent, or story?

At Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2026 (21–27 January, InterContinental Dubai Festival City), these sessions offer a layered answer, through literature, art, history, and lived experience. Together, they form a cultural starter pack for anyone curious about the UAE’s past, present, and creative future.

1. Bin Shabib Brother: My Grandfather’s Story

Taking place on 22 January from 12:00 to 1:00 PM, this Arabic-language session, with simultaneous translation to English, sees Ahmed and Rashed bin Shabib reflect on their grandfather’s life as a lens through which to understand family legacy, personal memory, and the quiet histories that shape a nation. Rooted in oral storytelling, the conversation highlights how Emirati identity is often preserved through family narratives passed down across generations.

2. Exploring Comics in the UAE

On 22 January, from 4:00 to 5:00 PM, this session brings together UAE-based artists and writers to explore how comics have become an emerging space for Emirati expression. Through illustration and visual narrative, comics are capturing everyday life, humour, heritage, and imagination, proving that identity can be explored just as powerfully through panels as through prose.

3. A Hundred Books and More

Held on 23 January from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM, this session celebrates the books that have shaped reading culture in the UAE. Moving between classic and contemporary titles, the Arabic discussion, simultaneously translated to English, reflects on how literature builds shared memory and collective imagination, positioning reading as one of the quiet but enduring foundations of cultural identity.

4. In Conversation With Sultan Al Amimi

On 24 January, from 1:00 to 2:00 PM, writer and cultural thinker Sultan Al Amimi reflects on storytelling, heritage, and the responsibility of writers in preserving collective memory. Drawing on folklore, research, and narrative practice, the session explores how Emirati identity is documented, questioned, and continually re-imagined through literature.

5. Fragrances in the UAE

Taking place on 24 January from 5:00 to 6:00 PM, this session explores scent as a powerful marker of Emirati culture. From oud and bukhoor to rituals of hospitality, fragrance is discussed as a sensory archive; one that carries memory, emotion, and identity in ways words sometimes cannot.

6. Shamma Al Bastaki: Stories From Old Dubai

On 25 January, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM, award-winning poet Shamma Al Bastaki revisits old Dubai through story and reflection. Drawing on memory, poetry, and place, the session captures the city before transformation, revealing how identity is shaped not only by change, but by what is remembered and felt.

7. Arabian Nights: Poetry and Qanoun

An Arabian night taking place on 23 January from 8:30 to 9:30 PM, this evening blends poetry with the live sound of the qanoun. Inspired by the Arab world’s rich oral traditions, the performance celebrates rhythm, storytelling, and music as essential carriers of cultural identity.

Bonus: The Festival is also hosting a special screening of the bold Emirati Horror movie, Hoba (The Vile), on 22 January from 7:30 – 10PM followed by a Q&A with the director, Majed Al Ansari on the inspirations behind the film, its international film festival success, and the future of Emirati cinema.