Emirates Airline Festival Of Literature And Middle East Film And Comic Con Team Up To Promote Reading

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, the Arab World’s largest celebration of the written and spoken word, and Middle East Film and Comic Con (MEFCC), the region’s largest pop culture and entertainment festival, today announced their first collaboration to promote a love of reading to new audiences in the country. These two powerhouse cultural events in the UAE are combining forces to present more diverse forms of storytelling within their line-ups.

Under the spotlight as the first collaborative event is the Eisner Award-winning Locke and Key comic series by Joe Hill, bestselling horror writer and son of horror legend Stephen King and illustrator Gabriel Rodriguez. The series, about a grieving family pitted against the forces of evil, has sold more than a million copies and is already considered a modern comics classic. For the first time in Dubai, the creators of the comics will appear together on stage to discuss the series and upcoming TV adaptation, and the wider work of their creative partnership. The session will be held at the 10th Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, at InterContinental Dubai Festival City, on 2 March, 2018.

‘Comic books and graphic novels are becoming an intrinsic part of modern literature,’ said Isobel Abulhoul, OBE, CEO and Trustee of the Emirates Literature Foundation and Director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. ‘They are accessible to all and their evolution into a recognised art-form has seen a rise in the quality and diversity of the content. At the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, we celebrate the written word in all its forms, and comic books have always been a part of that. We are pleased to partner with MEFCC to continue to support this burgeoning industry, not only worldwide by recognising and inviting international authors for our events, but especially in the UAE, which has demonstrated an unending enthusiasm for all forms of literature.’