Women’s Voices You Can’t Ignore: Bolu Babalola at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature

At the 2021 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, you'll find some of the best stories happening.

Posted on

11 January 2021

| Last updated on 19 January 2021

Bolu Babalola at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature

Photo credit: @boluberry | Instagram

The Festival returns this year from Jan 29 to Feb 13

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai is back for 2021 with a phenomenal line-up, which includes some female writers you don’t want to miss.

Bolu Babalola could have had a career in law, but luckily for her readers, she found words too delicious. One of her short stories was shortlisted for the 4th Estate’s B4ME competition, which was the starting point for a new ambition: to tell stories and work in sweatpants.

Her collection of short stories, 'Love in Colour' "remixes ancient love stories from Asia, Greece, and around Africa for a new audience", including pre-colonial Yoruba stories, Orisha traditions, and Ancient Soninke tales.

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A post shared by Bolu Babalola. (@boluberry)

Whether it is a short story, a media interview or a post on Twitter, Bolu’s writing sparkles with wit and brilliance. The self-proclaimed “romcomoisseur” pulls no punches, and is a fierce defender of love and romance, which, she says, are often seen as innately feminine and therefore inherently inferior, which is a terrible misogynistic take.

"People think of love as a fluffy emotion, but it’s not – it’s steely and powerful and it can bring out courage in us," she said.

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is held with Founding Partners Emirates Airline and the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated authority for heritage, arts, and culture and under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.

For the full list of authors, visit: emirateslitfest.com/authors

More information can be found online and year-round news of #EmiratesLitFest on across social media.

You can also tune in to the Foundation’s two podcasts; the Best of the Emirates LitFest, and the Boundless Book Club.