Emirates Airline Festival of Literature

In 2010, the Festival was renamed the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature and its theme was "Debate, Inspire, Enjoy" welcomed over 80 authors, including Leila Aboulela, Martin Amis, Tim Butcher, Polly Dunbar, Maha Gargash, Abdo Khal, Yann Martel, Alexander McCall Smith, Mariam Al Saedi, Marjane Satrapi, Qais Sedki, Vikas Swarup, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, and many more.

Among the attendees were Jeffrey Archer, Ken Hom, Anupam Kher, Nik Gowing, Anthony Horowitz, Shobhaa De, Jeffery Deaver, Lynda La Plante, Ian Rankin, Dan Rather, and Tan Twan Eng.

The Festival continued with the previous year's format, replacing The Lighter Side with Friday Rhythms, an evening of poetry and music with an innovative rock/poetry fusion performance by LiTTLe MaCHiNe.

Among the author attendees were Saud AlSanousi, Paddy Ashdown, Pam Ayres, Henry Blofeld, Eoin Colfer, Nicholas Evans, Richard and Judy, Vivian French, Sally Gardner, Joanne Harris, Christina Lamb, Andrew Motion, Jeremy Paxman, Sir Tim Rice, Ahdaf Soueif, and many more.

Authors in attendance included Saud Alsanousi, Simon Armitage, Lauren Child, Ann Cleeves, Carol Ann Duffy, Lisa Faulkner, Farah Chamma, Maha Gargash, A. C. Grayling, Anthony Horowitz, Dom Joly, Robert Lindsay, Anchee Min, John Julius Norwich, Ian Rankin, John Torode, Marcia Williams, among a host of others from over 30 countries.

Notable authors included Jeffrey Archer, Jon Ronson, Christina Lamb, Kathy Reichs, Francesca Simon, Alan Titchmarsh, Ben Miller, Kanishk Tharoor, Abdullah Al-Jumah, Nadiya Hussain, Andrew Davies, Lucy Hawking, Bothayna Wail Al Essa, Yasmina Khadra, Frank Gardner, Jo Malone, Eric Van Lustbader, Sana Amanat, John Hemingway, Omar Saif Ghobash, Nigel Cumberland, Farah Chamma, among many others.

Highlight authors included David Walliams, Kevin Kwan, Cheryl Strayed, Anthony Horowitz, Jacqueline Wilson, Shashi Tharoor, Saroo Brierley, Mahur Jaffrey, Ken Hom, Muhammad Yunus, Mohammed Hasan Alwan, Omar Saif Ghobash, and Rhianna Pratchett.

For the Love of Words, presented by the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, Dubai Opera, the Ministry of Tolerance, and the British Council, gathered the best of the UK and UAE's contemporary poets under one roof.

Highlight authors included Jeff Kinney, Nathan H. Lents, Chris Gardner, Ahmad AlShugairi, Dame Darcey Bussell, Tony Blackburn, Sally Helgesen, Saud Alsanousi, Jane Hawking, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, Ian Rankin, and many more.

[13] Designers Camil Karam & Hussein Alazaat also attended and discussed the history and evolution of Arab publications as part of the programme that was themed "Change the Story".