News Desk
DUBAI: Anticipation is running high as the 18th edition of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (Emirates LitFest) opens tomorrow, promising a week of bold ideas, powerful stories and vibrant cultural exchange.
Our editor poring over the 2026 programme noticed several standout additions that showcase the Festival’s global reach and thematic depth. Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka will reflect on the enduring power of art and storytelling to shape identity, foster cultural exchange and bridge communities in an increasingly globalised world.
Readers will also have a rare opportunity to hear from Jung Chang, whose landmark memoir Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide. Returning to the LitFest stage, Chang will discuss a lifetime of witnessing and writing history, and how she carries her family story, and China’s modern past, into the present with her 2025 sequel, Fly, Wild Swans.
The programme also embraces timely conversations around wellbeing and self-understanding. Licensed mental health counsellor Dr Rachna Buxani offers a compassionate and eye-opening exploration of how unseen narcissistic family dynamics can shape identity, self-worth and reality and how individuals can begin reclaiming their own stories.
Fans of crime and spy fiction can look forward to an illuminating session with Vaseem Khan, author of two acclaimed crime series set in India. From 1950s Bombay to MI6 and Bond’s Q Branch, Khan will explore the end of the Raj, the evolution of spy fiction and the real story behind one of the genre’s most iconic characters.
Beyond the page, the Festival atmosphere will extend outdoors with a host of UAE-based musical talent performing on The Lawn at InterContinental Dubai Festival City on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 January. Performers include Nurzy, Fabre, Job Shaji, Tiffany Diab, Adam Mezi, Ibby VK, and Junior Brown, adding a celebratory soundtrack.
