Dubai, September 22, 2020: The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature has announced that the popular competitions for schools are now open for 2021. Three annual favourites return, giving children the chance to show off their story writing and poetry performance skills, or compete against other schools to show with their knowledge of selected books. New for this year is the Montegrappa Letter Writing competition, celebrating the craft of handwriting as well as the skill of composing perfectly worded letters. The announcement was made at the Emirate Literature Foundation’s annual schools’ meeting, held digitally this year, attended by hundreds of teachers from across the country.  

 

The Festival’s student writing competition, the Oxford University Press Story Writing Competition will be taking submissions on the theme of ‘Change the Story’. Students with a talent for poetry performance can showcase their talent with an interpretation of their chosen poem in the Emirates NBD sponsored ‘Poetry For All’. The Readers’ Cup gives champion readers the chance to compete against other schools with those with the best recall and understanding winning a spot in the grand final.  All competitions are held in Arabic and English. 

 

“Given the restrictions on schoolchildren for much of this year, we are thrilled to be able to bring some normality back into their lives with the return of our competitions,” said Ahlam Bolooki, festival director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. “They offer exceptional creative outlets through creative writing and poetry performance, and the reading challenge is always exciting and hotly contested. This year we are excited to launch a new handwriting competition too. The enjoyment gained in taking part in these competitions will, we hope, give them a life-long love of reading for pleasure.”