Emirates Airline Festival of Literature celebrates young poets

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature celebrates young poets

Dubai: The UAE’s young poetry performers were celebrated at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature at a special ceremony to honour the winners of the Poetry for All Competition, sponsored by Emirates NBD. The annual competition for pupils aged 8-18 gives young people the chance to show off their oratory and performance skills with individual interpretations of favourite poems, which this year were performed in person. Winners were chosen by a panel of poets and judges including festival poets Sara al Zain, Qasim Saudi, Mohamad al Hebsi and Eidha bin Masood for Arabic and Zeina Hashem Beck, Harry Baker, Martin Kiszko and Zolani Mkiva for the participants in English. The Poetry for All competition attracted more than 1142 entrants in English and Arabic, which is an unprecedented number, competing across the two age group categories of the competition, 8-13 and 14-18. The 2023 edition also saw the inclusion of a separate category for Students of Determination and for Arabic the student performed both Fasih and Nabati poetry. This is the sixth year that Emirates NBD has sponsored the competition. “Emirates NBD is delighted to be the proud sponsor of the Emirates NBD Poetry For All competition. The competition is our