Namal Siddiqui at Emirates LitFest 2024.

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

Namal Siddiqui is a spoken word poetess, creative writer and mountaineer. After working in advertising and tech start-ups for over a decade in the UAE, she went on to pursue a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Birmingham City University.

She now works as Community Events Manager at Emirates Literature Foundation Dubai, focusing on the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature special events and year-long programme curation, while continuing to write poetry and non-fiction.

She has performed at Expo 2020 Dubai, the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature and the Global Citizen Festival. A third-culture kid, born and raised in the UAE with roots in Pakistan, Siddiqui has written poetry since childhood. Her writings delve on the subjects of identity, migration and nature. She speaks to Gulf Today

What inspired you to shift from advertising and tech to poetry and cultural event curation?

I was always drawn to writing and reading poetry as a child and its tug pulled me into adulthood quietly, whilst I navigated through ‘professional’ life. When COVID happened, I had the time and opportunity to really put things into perspective.

I took a long sabbatical to connect with my roots: Pakistan and writing. In Pakistan, I explored mountaineering in a holistic and raw manner, taking in the culture and sensibilities of the local mountain people.

 Namal Siddiqui among Zoui Sar mountains.

A year later, I travelled to the UK to pursue my Master in Creative Writing. Across both the experiences, I made lifelong friends and learnt the importance of community — sharing a space and coming together as people with common interests (or not). I think both poetry and cultural event curation have these things in common.

How do your diverse cultural experiences – as a Pakistani brought up in the Emirates - influence your creativity?

The beauty of being raised in the Emirates is to have untethered diversity. That is to say, we live among people who are uniquely and proudly different to us. I am not Arab, I am not entirely Pakistani in my ways, I understand the nuances of many languages and cultures — that question of identity has been the fundamental theme of my writings.

Multiculturalism exists in every part of the world now and will only continue to grow. Creativity, I believe, becomes a living and transformative phenomenon when one witnesses diverse cultural experiences.

How does your experience in mountaineering shape your writing and your approach to handling community events?

Everything I do and believe in, including writing, has evolved because of the mountaineering experience. You don’t have to climb a mountain to learn this; but mountains revealed to me my limitations, physically and mentally. One thing is that the mountain teaches you the art of discomfort — whether it is extreme temperatures, call of nature or getting to know strangers who become friends who you can strangely trust your life with.

No one can help you here except you; yet everyone on this expedition has the same purpose as you — to reach the top and to be safe. So the individual and the collective come together. When I did my first LitFest, I did feel the essence of climbing a peak. It was our 15th anniversary and we had 250 authors from around the world in 2023. We came together as an individual and therefore as a collective. We all have our mountains to climb; we have to come together and be supportive.

Can you tell us more about the community events, centering around poetry and performance, you curate?

I look for people who bring folk and traditional instruments to contemporary sounds. You’ll always find a sense of fusion in the community events that attempt to elevate the experience of storytelling — whether it is hand pan, Oud or a Rabab. I am keenly interested in exploring poetry beyond English too; so all languages are encouraged.

What are the themes in the first poetry book you are working on?

The poems are about a before and after in many ways, and I explore themes such as places, identity, separation and something I call everyday living. A lot of my poetry is observing something basic as an elevator ride, a traffic jam, a bus ride, which is then placed in the bigger picture of life.

What advice would you give to young, emerging poets and writers, who have a similar background as yours?

Create a routine for your writing — it is all about discipline. Read, read, read. That’s pretty much how your dedicated time should alternate between — writing and reading. Take up a course or workshop, if you feel that is important. A good mentor can really hold your hand into the world of poetry and writing. Writing in general is a lonely vocation, so show up at poetry events not just to perform, but to listen as well.

Having a supportive community that you connect with is important. We tend to become bolder and braver when there are familiar faces in the audience; but it is essential that we show up for them too, not just ourselves.

This allows you to exchange genuine feedback from peers. You also get to see the kind of work that people are doing. You may end up collaborating with others or just go home with more food for thought. Most of all, it is never too late - so pick that pen and write.