Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), part of the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), has launched the Qalam Creative Writing Program, offering writing workshops to talented Emiratis aimed at expanding their skills and encouraging new authors.
The launch of the program comes along with the national reading month in March, underscoring the ALC’s support for creativity and authorship.
The Qalam Creative Writing Program offers a series of specialised workshops throughout 2023, where distinguished professors supervise a creative laboratory, enabling participants to improve their writing skills in various creative fields.
The program includes three workshops throughout the year, where literary works completed during the program will be published at the end of the year, with the Abu Dhabi ALC covering the expenses. The program begins with a novel-writing workshop, supervised by Dr. Youssef Hatini, Professor in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the United Arab Emirates University.
From March 18 until September 1, 10 face-to-face meetings will be held at the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi. In September, two workshops will be held in parallel. The poetry writing workshop will be supervised by academic, critic, and poet Dr Aisha Al Shamsi beginning on September 1 and continuing until October 27, with one face-to-face meeting every week at the Cultural Foundation.
Meanwhile, the Children’s Writing Workshop is supervised by Dr. Fatima Al Mazrouei, a writer and publisher with a PhD in literature and criticism, and will be held from September 5 through November 7, with one face-to-face meeting per week at the Cultural Foundation. The workshop begins with an introduction to children’s literature before covering the principles, elements, and techniques of writing, in addition to reading various literary texts.