The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature has announced the return of its eagerly-contested Chevron Readers’ Cup, which gives students the chance to compete against other schools to in a series of heats, with those with the best knowledge of the selected books going through to the grand finale at the Festival.

The competition is open to full-time students in the GCC (UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait) and is held in Arabic and English.

“Our student reading contest really get the participants excited and it is wonderful to see their enjoyment in taking part,” said Ahlam Bolooki, festival director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. “Our aim is to provide a legacy for these children which will give a life-time love of reading.”

Participants can register online via the Festival website. The final of the competitions will be held at the annual Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, which runs from 4-9 February 2020.

The Festival’s two student writing competitions, the Oxford University Press Story Writing Competition and the Taaleem Award for poetry, are already open for submissions and will close on 6 October 2019. This year the theme for both competitions is ‘Tomorrow’.

The inter-school Chevron Readers’ Cup competition is divided into two age categories – Primary Schools (up to age 11) and Secondary Schools (ages 12-16). Teams are provided with books written by participating 2019 Festival authors on which the quiz questions are based. After an elimination round, the top 16 teams advance to the final, battling for first place in a live ‘read-off’ held at the Festival.

Teams can register for the competition online at emirateslitfest.com/competitions/young-peoples-competitions/readers-cup. Registrations close on 6^th October 2019.

Almost 3,000 students entered the Readers’ Cup in 2019. Renu Sharma, Chevron Alkhalij General Manager, Middle East JV’s Aviation & Country Chair – UAE, said: “In this digital age, I am immensely impressed at how seriously children take this reading competition and thrilled that they are engaging with books in such a dynamic way. As a company Chevron Al Khalij is proud to have sponsored this competition for the last eight years and hopefully helped awaken in the participants a love of reading that will continue throughout their lives.”

More information about the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature can be found online and year-round news of #EmiratesLitFest on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.