The 14^th annual Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is tapping into the zeitgeist in 2022, with a strong focus on wellbeing and positive change. Taking place at the Habtoor City Hotels from 3-13 February 2022, the Festival is responding to popular demand with a range of experts and sessions exploring relationships, grief, mental health and excelling in business through Emotional Intelligence.

Great British Bake Off star, mental health campaigner and author Nadiya Hussain will discuss her life and overcoming the challenges described in her book Nadiya: Anxiety and Me. Nadiya is also hosting a session for children where she will help them address their feelings, confront their fears and acknowledge their differences.

Behavioural scientist Pragya Agarwal will shed light on unconscious bias and how it affects us from job interviews to romantic relationships in a session about her book SWAY. She will also discuss the pressures, joys and challenges of motherhood, on a panel together with Hala Kazim and Iman Mersal.

Psychotherapist Sasha Bates blends the personal and the professional as she comes to terms with the loss of her husband in the book The Languages of Loss: A Psychotherapist’s Journey Through Grief and in the festival session with the same name.Jessica Moxham is a champion for disability rights and parenting,and she will share what she has learnt from her disabled son in The Cracks That Let the Light In. This session will be valuable to all parents but especially those whose children are facing their own challenges.

Battles with mental health issues are candidly shared by American journalist, author and ‘mom blogger ’Jenny Lawson in her festival sessions touching on depression and anxiety with a large helping of comedy,with anecdotes about health insurance, taxidermy and why she can never go to the post office again.

If there is one thing that people have learnt over the last 18 months, it is the importance of friendships to our mental health, but can one ever have too many? Joining the Festival virtually,Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist, will reveal the incredible effects that true friendships have on both our mental and physical wellbeing, and just how complicated the business of making and keeping friends actually is.

Digital lives are also examined by author Rehan Khan. He maintains that the digital world is making us distracted, jumping from one thing to the next leaving us exhausted, overwhelmed,and that we are going through life without purpose. His masterclass sets out how people can minimise the impact of the digital world and avoid distraction.

Dr Rupy Aujla, bestselling author of The Doctor’s Kitchen and Eat to Beat Illness, will explain how to create healthy and delicious recipes for optimum mental and physical health.

Pioneering a space for females in a field historically dominated by men, UAE-based authors Mathilde Loujayne and Ruzina Ahad are writing books that cater to contemporary Muslim women. Mathilde’s Big Little Steps, a woman’s guide to finding a balanced lifestyle, and a glowing heart in Islam and Ruzina’s Dream Du’a Do, a millennial Muslimah’s guide to achieving your wildest dreams, are part of a new generation of self-help books that centre love, positivity and goal-building from a framework of faith. Both books speak to Muslim women, a demographic that has historically been doubly impacted by patriarchy – yet Mathilde and Ruzina are championing female empowerment in a way that’s relatable and actionable.

With the aim to help the next generation of women find success in their media careers while staying true to themselves, Al Arabiya news anchor Fatima Daoui will be sharing hard won lessons from her own career.

The Festival programme is brimming with sessions to engage, entertain and inform, with topics encompassing fiction, history, current affairs, food, health, travel, biography, business and more.  There are opportunities to appreciate poetry, take part in creative writing workshops and generally indulge in intelligent and articulate discussion on a wide range of topics. Sessions appeal to all ages and nationalities, featuring outstanding authors, thinkers and opinion formers.

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature Festival is held with Founding Partners Emirates Airline and the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated authority for heritage, arts, and culture. It is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.

To buy tickets and for the full list of authors, visit tickets.emirateslitfest.com

More information about the Emirates Literature Foundation can be found online and year-round news of #EmiratesLitFest on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. The Foundation also has two podcasts; the Best of the Emirates LitFest, and the Boundless Book Club.