Sharjah International Book Fair proves to be a draw

Hollywood adaptations, writing tips and the challenges of the regional publishing industry were just some of the topics discussed during the opening weekend of the Sharjah International Book Fair.

Back for its 35th edition and being held at the Expo Centre Sharjah until Saturday, more than 200,000 people have been coming to the book fair since it began on Wednesday.

With more than 100 international, regional and local authors invited, book lovers were spoilt for choice with a plethora of panel discussions and book signings held across the mammoth venue.

One of the biggest guests of the weekend was undoubtedly best-selling author Eric Van Lustbader. As well as penning his own thrillers including The Ninja (1980), The Kaisho (1993) and this year's Any Minute Now, the New Yorker also found success in taking over the writing duties for the Jason Bourne series since original author Robert Ludlum passed away in 2001.

Van Lustbader was in Sharjah on Friday to discuss his 10th addition to the series, The Bourne Enigma, which was also published this year.

He also expressed his disappointment with the latest film instalment – Jason Bourne – which was released in July. "The newest film has nothing to with any of my books and people are upset about that because they thought my books are better," he said. "Also for some reason they very stupidly called the film Jason Bourne, where other Bourne films were called The Bourne something, like The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Ultimatum."

Ludlum chalks film producers’ refusal to base Bourne films on his novels down to risk aversion. “Hollywood screenwriters don’t like taking someone else’s work and redoing it,” he said. “And if they do that, they normally mess it up royally.”

Van Lustbader will return to the UAE in March as a guest of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai.

Meanwhile, a highlight of Thursday evening’s agenda was a panel session which focused on the state of the UAE publishing industry.

Featuring Jamal Al Shehhi, Emirati author and founder of the publishing house Kuttub, Sultan Al Amimi, Poetry Academy director and Emirati literary critic, and Isobel Abulhoul, Emirates Airline Festival of Literature director, the panel pulled no punches in addressing the challenges facing the industry.

“The number of writers and publishing houses is increasing, but is that the direction we want the industry to go? Many of the authors here are looking for fame and celebrity far more than critical acclaim,” stated Al Amimi.

“They think that one book – no matter whether it is written well or not – should give them a certain status. This cannot be good. There are also some publishing houses who are not particularly interested in looking at the quality of the writing or the story itself; there are publishers who are not even interested in proofreading the material.”

Al Shehhi said e-books should be something UAE publishers put more emphasis on. “Around 30 per cent of publishing is now made up of e-books,” he stated. “There can be no doubt that publishing changes the world at large and ideas and practices must change with them.”

Abulhoul struck a more conciliatory tone, saying there was space within for all publishing industries to embrace both physical and e-books.

That said, she pointed to the proliferation of the latter as being partly responsible for igniting a love of the written world among today’s youth.

“It is extremely encouraging to know how tech-savvy young people are in the UAE and that e-books will help to foster a love of reading in any form,” she said. “That has to be good news.”

Thursday also saw three acclaimed authors – Palestinian writer Mahmoud Shuqer, Canadian humorist Terry Fallis and Emirati writer Fatima Al Mazrouei – shed some light on their creative processes.

While they all shared different approaches, the international panel were united in the belief that writing requires dedication.

“You need to be disciplined and make time for writing,” Fallis said. “Books don’t just write themselves.”

Shuqer urged aspiring authors to maintain a daily writing regimen: “When that happens, the writer can write at any time.”

• The Sharjah International Book Fair continues until Saturday. For more information, go to www.sharjahbookfair.com

sasaeed@thenational.ae