The Dubai Literary Salon held its inaugural meeting in 2016, on a very chilly night around a fire pit in Wafi, Dubai. Since then, the Salon moved several homes until it finally settled at Tania’s Teahouse in Jumeirah. The Salon is a monthly open mic gathering welcoming writers of all ages. It encourages its members to share their writings and partake in discussions relating their - as well as fellow attendant’s – work and further literary subjects.

 

The founder of the Dubai Literary Salon, Hananah Zaheer says: “There is always an open mic for writers and often, there are featured writers who read from their work and discuss everything from revisions to publishing to marketing books.” Moreover, the current host of the Salon, Allison K. Williams, holds several workshops and has instituted optional writing time during the sessions which Zaheer says has been a great addition to the literary evenings.

 

Zaheer was inspired to create the Dubai Literary Salon when she moved to Dubai form Washington DC. She had left the world of writing that she was very familiar with there and it had made her feel disconnected: “Writing is a solitary activity, yes, but I would argue that the not-writing is not. I wanted to find like-minded people to talk about this ‘not-writing’, and to be inspired, perhaps, into then writing some more. The process, I knew, needed company. Once I had the idea to start something, I considered all the possibilities: why not get together and write, why not share our work, why not invite others to speak about their work? The ideas then fell into place from there.” She says that the Salon came about because of her love for talking about writing, sharing, and listening to other’s work: “I find great comfort in being around other creatives, as if the creative energy somehow builds in that company.”

 

A writer and editor by both passion and profession, Zaheer’s vision for the Salon was to ultimately create a friendly and comfortable space where writers could get together on a regular basis to share their work, write and spend some time away from their day-to-day commitments and jobs. She hoped to create a place where they could freely talk about literature and commiserate with each other about “just how hard it is to write some days”. She invited established writers to the gatherings to share their experiences and soon realized that the crowd was inquisitive not just about sharing their work but also about learning the craft of writing.

 

A professor for 12 years, Zaheer says that her love for teaching is a close second to her love for writing and editing, and is followed by her love for performance: “When I look back over my entire life, I have been involved in some sort of story-telling or the other: stage, improvising, script-writing, fiction, photography. I don’t know which ones I would call hobbies and which ones are just expressions of my creativity, but I do know that all of these together somehow almost make up how I see the world.”

 

The Dubai Literary Salon has no restrictions for anyone who wishes to attend and Zaheer ventures that a large majority of the regular attendees are aspiring writers: “It gives me much joy to know that we have had several people join us for years, only to finally them stand up one day and share their own work! We have also had several people publish stories and books since they joined.”

 

So far, Zaheer says that she is pleased at how far the Dubai Literary Salon has come since it opened its doors in 2016: “Now, I look at the Salon and I can confidently say that it has become just the kind of home for writers in the UAE that I had hoped for it to be, and perhaps even more so.”

 

To the attendees of the Salon she has this message: “I find myself incredibly grateful, over and over, to look at the bravery and kindness of all the people who attend the Dubai Literary Salon events. The writers, the readers, the people among us looking to carve space for their own words who have made evenings magical; keep creating, keep showing up to the page. You remind me that effort is worthy, no matter what the results.”