Books — Made in UAE
Our participants

A daydreamer with a traveller soul, Alyazia Khalifa develops her observing-self through photography and writings. She was the first intern from the UAE to participate in the IFA cross-cultural internship in 2007. In 2013, she was awarded the Doctorate degree on Intercultural Broadcasting from Kingston University, United Kingdom. Her travel experiences not only inspire her to look into foreign literature, but also expand her own imagination. Alyazia always believed that a person should never kill the child within them to keep their imagination and creativity at their peaks. Currently, she is working on two children’s books and her first young adult fantasy novel in Arabic.

alsuwaidi.alyazia@gmail.com

Ayesha Al Hashemi was born and raised in Abu Dhabi. After studying Education and Literature, she started exploring the world of children’s books and writing for them in Arabic. Reading books from her father’s bookcase awakened her love of reading and writing in early life. Coming from a culturally diverse family, Ayesha grew up with an appreciation for languages. She currently works with college students learning Arabic as a second language.

ayesha.hashem@gmail.com

Asma AlKetbi is a writer-in-the-making. She has been expressing herself through writing since the age of seven and has been doing so ever since.  She holds a B.A. in International Studies from Zayed University, and two minors in English Literature and Applied Psychology.  After her graduation she started pursuing writing as a career. Recently, she started blogging her thoughts and a few short stories while working on her novel, a fantasy for young adults. She is passionate about most things in life but if you must know; she loves books, psychology, philosophy, nail polish and coffee.

asma.ketbi@gmail.com

Eman AlRaesi was born on 27th April 1984 and is based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. She is a painter, but occasionally also writes. She has published a few texts with the Emirati Female Writers website Untitled Chapters and was once the writer of the month. Eman had her paintings exhibited in many local and regional exhibitions and her first solo show in September 2012. She won a number of awards, the latest was that her design was selected for the Abu Dhabi Art Wing Design Project 2013. Eman is a member of Emirates Fine Arts Society as well as of the Baith AlShamsi artists community and a member of Untitled Chapters.

eman@alraeesi.org

Shaima Mohamed Al-Marzooqi is a young ambitious writer, born in 1988. She is specialized in Early Childhood Education (Pre K-Grade 3) from Zayed University, Dubai. Shaima started writing from a young age and became addicted to reading books and learning about children. She believes that reading had a significant impact on her language, thoughts, and personality. In University, she got great support from her teachers and they encouraged her to write for children and adults. At the moment, Shaima is a weekly author at Alroeya newspaper. She is a member of UAEBBY as well as of the Women Writers Association.

Because she loves the Arabic language, she released a book titled Challenges facing Arabic Language in Today's World. In addition, she is author of a sci-fiction novel titled Rayaana. Many of her children stories are published, such as Hamad's trip in Dubai, My stepmother (Arabic and English), Asma and the Bear Fofo, Ahmed and IPad, My first day in Kindergarten, No one plays with me, What can I do, My lovely grandma, The journey of a paper, Where I put my things, How much I love my father and Who is she?. All of her children stories are written in Arabic language and she participated in many book fairs in United Arab Emirates and other countries.

children.writer@hotmail.com

Khadija Ibrahim Al Khayat, a mother of two, was born and raised in Dubai. She had a love for reading from a very young age and when seeing her kids growing, noticed the scarcity of Arabic children’s stories in the libraries. So she decided to start writing stories for kids herself which was beyond her expectation so that from this point on she keeps on writing. Besides, Khadija continues her studies of Applied Sociology.

uae7585@hotmail.com

A working mother a dream catcher through being an independent curator of – especially young – artists, and a memory capturer by her Cama Ra'a machine while thinking on doodling her thoughts in figures that take her away to the LaLa land and make her paint words over her clothes and walls of possibility ...

reem.qahtan@gmail.com
 

 

Born in Ras Al Khaimah, Sumaiya moved to Abu Dhabi after her marriage and lives in the capital with her husband and two boys. She graduated from Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, in January 2014 with a specialization in Early Childhood Education and likes teaching and interacting with children from age three years old. Sumaiya also loves reading books and started loving pictures books after attending Children’s Literature course with Prof. Patience Sowa.

sumaiya.almansoori@gmail.com

A daydreamer with a traveller soul, Alyazia Khalifa develops her observing-self through photography and writings. She was the first intern from the UAE to participate in the IFA cross-cultural internship in 2007. In 2013, she was awarded the Doctorate degree on Intercultural Broadcasting from Kingston University, United Kingdom. Her travel experiences not only inspire her to look into foreign literature, but also expand her own imagination. Alyazia always believed that a person should never kill the child within them to keep their imagination and creativity at their peaks. Currently, she is working on two children’s books and her first young adult fantasy novel in Arabic.

alsuwaidi.alyazia@gmail.com

Eman AlRaesi was born on 27th April 1984 and is based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. She is a painter, but occasionally also writes. She has published a few texts with the Emirati Female Writers website Untitled Chapters and was once the writer of the month. Eman had her paintings exhibited in many local and regional exhibitions and her first solo show in September 2012. She won a number of awards, the latest was that her design was selected for the Abu Dhabi Art Wing Design Project 2013. Eman is a member of Emirates Fine Arts Society as well as of the Baith AlShamsi artists community and a member of Untitled Chapters.

eman@alraeesi.org

A working mother a dream catcher through being an independent curator of – especially young – artists, and a memory capturer by her Cama Ra'a machine while thinking on doodling her thoughts in figures that take her away to the LaLa land and make her paint words over her clothes and walls of possibility ...

reem.qahtan@gmail.com

Instagram page of Reem Qahtan

Maha Al Ali, born in 1985 in Abu Dhabi, graduated in 2007 from Zayed University in Graphic Design (Bachelor of Arts). Whilst growing an interest in barrier free design, she started to conduct her own research on what was available in Dubai and benchmarking it to other countries, such as Japan and some states in the US. Passion in hand, Maha left the comforts of United Arab Emirates to study barrier free design in Kyushu University, where the most advanced underground station practical for people with disabilities was established. Three years later, Maha not only managed to get her masters in Design, but also came up with her own guidelines for a holistic design, implementing the understanding of emotional design into barrier free design.

m.alsuroor@gmail.com

 

Maitha Al Khayat is a children’s book author and illustrator who is passionate about reading and writing since childhood. A graduate in business administration from Higher Colleges of Technology in Ras Al Khaimah, Maitha worked in the college library before becoming a full time mother.  The need for funny Emirati books inspired her to write and illustrate for children. Among her published works are I love my Daddy’s Long Beard and the award-winning My own special way – the first Emirati children’s book to see its rights sold to the UK. Her book When a Camel Craves Loqaimat was published during Sharjah International Book Fair 2012.

Instagram page of Maitha Al Khayat

maitha.alkhayat@hotmail.com

© Karen Seggelke Jutta Bauer was born in Volksdorf, a suburb of Hamburg, in 1955. She studied illustration at the Hamburg University for Applied Sciences from 1975 until 1981. In 1980 she became a member of a group of illustrators in Hamburg, the Hamburger Illustratorengruppe. She published her first picture books in 1981, worked for various publishing houses and magazines, and began drawing for animated films in 1991.Among her best-known works are her illustrations for the Juli series by Kirsten Boie. She has illustrated some 40 books and received many awards. In 2009 she was awarded the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for her complete works, and in 2010 she was honored with the Hans Christian Andersen prize. Today Jutta Bauer lives and works as an artist in Hamburg.

 

© Bernd Sahling Anja Tuckermann grew up in Berlin where she lives today. Her first novel Mooskopf was published in 1988. From 1988 to 1997 she was a radio editor for children’s programs. Since then, she has been a free-lance writer and journalist publishing children’s books, novels, short fiction and theatre plays. Her books have been translated into ten languages. Since 1993, she leads creative writing workshops and seminars for prose and theatre with children, young adults and adults. She has won several awards for her novels and plays, including the Hans im Glück-Prize, the Friedrich Gerstäcker-Prize and the German Youth Literature Prize.