UAE BARQ برق الإمارات – نبضك
The Sharjah Book Authority, SBA, is opening both physical and virtual doors of the 39th Sharjah International Book Fair, SIBF 2020, on Wednesday, 4th November, to its global audiences, as the fair assumes a unique hybrid online-offline format this year in line with the UAE government’s efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
Organised by the SBA, SIBF 2020 is themed “The World Reads from Sharjah” and reiterates the emirate’s cultural message to the world, highlighting the fact that knowledge-sharing is key to human development and sustainable progress.
Through its offline programme, the 11-day book fair will offer members of the public with an opportunity to visit 1,024 publishers from 73 nations who are exhibiting over 80,000 new titles in English, Arabic and other languages at the Expo Centre Sharjah, and buy their favourite titles by pre-booking fixed visitation slots at registration.sibf.com.
Visitors will undergo thermal scanning and walk through sanitising gates and will be given coloured bracelets that will monitor their fixed three-hour visits, which can be extended on the SIBF website. The fair’s halls and publisher stalls will be sanitised and disinfected daily.
The cultural programme of the SIBF 2020 comprises 64 exciting discussions with 60 renowned authors, intellectuals, poets, politicians and artists from 19 countries, which will be delivered online via the “Sharjah Reads” virtual platform, allowing people from around the globe access to the entire programme remotely. To register for these talks, please visit sharjahreads.com.
Amongst the literary luminaries and global cultural figures participating are Prince Ea, Robert Kiyosaki, Lang Leav, Elisabetta Dami, Yann Martel, Neil Pasricha, Yaser Akel, Ravinder Singh, Wasini al-A’raj, Ahmed Murad, Lina Khoury, Layla Mutawa, Ahmad Al-Rifai, Mishel Hamad, Sultan Alameemi, Iman Al Yousef among others.
Emirati – global dialogues, school activities, and social media workshops For the first time in the SIBF’s history, SBA has tied up with embassies of various countries to design eight intellectual discussions, which will be led by Emirati writers and their counterparts from Spain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia, to name a few.
In addition, for SIBF’s large audience of children and youth, SBA is collaborating with the UAE’s Ministry of Education to host virtual meetings between students and their favourite authors and cultural figures.
The SBA has also announced a comprehensive schedule of social media workshops catering to all age groups.
The latter half of the fair will witness the 7th edition of Sharjah International Library Conference, from 10th to 12th November. Organised in collaboration with the American Library Association, the conference will convene library professionals from around the world to discuss and debate key topics around its theme, “Challenges faced by librarians and libraries during the New Normal”.
