Tomorrow, I Will Fly

By Emirates Literature Foundation

'I may smile again, and even laugh. Perhaps I will sing again.'

What does 'tomorrow' mean to you? For the men and women in Dubai Central Prison, tomorrow represents freedom, a new start, new possibilities. But there is uncertainty, too, among the anticipation. Will friends and family forgive them? How will they cope in the outside world? Raw, heartfelt and painfully honest, this collection of essays gives an insight into a world most of us will never see.

Written in the inmates' own words during the course of a unique one-week writers-in-residence scheme, it contains stories of disappointment, of shame and broken dreams, yet also sends a powerful and uplifting message of survival, growth, and hope for the future.

'This is not the end. I am not quitting.'

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emirates Literature Foundation
• Release date: Jun 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9789948343028

Emirates Literature Foundation

The Emirates Literature Foundation, home of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, is a not-for-profit non-governmental organisation that supports and nurtures a love of literature in the UAE and across the region through a programme of varied cultural initiatives.Recognising the distinctive contribution that literature makes to children’s lives, the Foundation focuses on introducing and cultivating a spirit of reading while acting as a catalyst for writing and cultural exchange.The Foundation governs the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, the UAE’s premier literary festival, which was held from 4-9 February, 2020, and as part of its initiatives, has implemented a School Librarian of the Year Award, a programme bringing authors to engage with inmates at Dubai Prisons, Voices of Future Generations, as well as year-round School Education Programmes, Book Clubs and Creative Writing Courses.Established in 2013 by Royal Decree issued by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, the Foundation aims to foster a life-long love for all literature.

Book preview

From the Inside Out

Isobel Abulhoul

CEO and Trustee, Emirates Literature Foundation

It is easy for mainstream society to forget those who fall outside our daily interactions, but the Emirates Literature Foundation has been privileged to organise a Creative Writing Programme with inmates in Dubai Central Prison since 2018. The vision of our Foundation is to include all in our endeavours, with the belief that everyone deserves a second chance and a welcome back into society, plus the redemptive power of reading and writing.

None of this would have been possible without the support of the following people and organisations: the inspirational authors who have made monthly visits to give the workshops, Dubai Police for embracing and welcoming this initiative, the Board of Trustees and team members of the Emirates Literature Foundation, and the inmates who have relished the opportunities offered by the programme.

This collection of essays is the result of the From the Inside Out project, when Clare Mackintosh and Annabel Kantaria spent a week as writers-in-residence in Dubai Central Prison working with inmates to write their essays on ‘Tomorrow’.

I am so grateful to Clare and Annabel for putting their own lives on hold to lead this project, to the officers at the men’s and women’s prisons in Dubai for their warm welcome and enthusiasm, and to Soha Oda from the Foundation team who has spearheaded the programme from its earliest inception.

I believe that this small book will make its way far and wide from Dubai and the UAE and inspire others to try something similar, and that it will give those in prisons around the world a chance to think about their tomorrows and spread hope in our world of today.

If you really ask me to pick one good patch of comfort in my entire prison term, I’d say it was your workshop.

A participant

Foreword from Dubai Police

Major General Abdulla Al Marri

Commander-in-chief, Dubai Police, UAE

Tomorrow, I Will Fly is the culmination of many months of hard work and inspiring action from a diverse and dedicated team of people. From the first international author visiting Dubai Central Prison in 2018 to the publication of this book, the prison officers, authors, inmates and our partners at the Emirates Literature Foundation have collaborated to bring success in a programme that we believe is ground-breaking in the Arab world.

The visits from local and international authors to deliver workshops on writing and publishing have become one of the most highly anticipated events the inmates look forward to. The outcome of these engaging and thought-provoking sessions has been significant, with a very positive impact on their behaviour and self-development, while helping their goals for reintegration into society. The workshops have also opened doors to show those outside the work done by prison officers to support the inmates’ rehabilitation.

We are very pleased to be part of the initiative, and work together with some great authors who have spent time with the inmates throughout the last two years and demonstrated their careful preparation, warmth, humour and generosity of spirit, in addition to collaborating with the Emirates Literature Foundation to establish the link between authors and the Correctional and Penal Institution.

We are proud of our officers from the training and education team at the Dubai Central Prison who have been enormously dedicated to the programme. Furthermore, we are extremely proud of the inmates who have taken part in the programme and shown their commitment and determination to change their own tomorrows.

Thanks a lot for everything, for taking time out of your busy schedule to come and awaken the writer in us, and help us polish and refine the skill. It was an amazing and priceless experience.

A participant

Hard Work Pays Off

Soha Oda Mohammed

Arabic Programme Manager, Emirates Literature Foundation

In 2018, the Emirates Literature Foundation launched the ‘Author Visit’ project in collaboration with Dubai Police, aimed at inmates at Penal and Correctional Institutions.

The objective was to enhance the inmates’ education and awareness about creative writing, the publishing industry and their personal development by bringing an international author into the institution to share their personal experiences and challenges they have faced.

The success of the first visit to the Penal and Correctional Institution enabled the Foundation to expand the level of engagement from raising awareness to capacity building among inmates. With the support of Dubai Police, we could conduct regular training sessions devoted to helping inmates improve their creative writing and content development skills. These sessions were taught by the best of local and international authors, giving inmates a great opportunity to gain knowledge and skills from experts in their field. Since March 2018, the programme has expanded to include many inmates, both men and women, of all ages and from many different nationalities. This means the level of engagement and interest has increased steadily year on year since the programme was launched.

This non-profit humanitarian milestone could not be achievable without the support and encouragement from our partners, the authors and Dubai Police’s Penal and Correctional Institutions. Thank you for your sincerity, honesty and good will in inspiring and influencing the inmates to take a confident step toward positive change. A special thanks to the inmates who were involved in this project for their passion and commitment to open their hearts to share their feelings with the world.

I am very much thankful to Clare for her patience and confidence in all of us. My utmost gratitude to the correction centre authorities and most humble regards to Officer Amer and Ms Soha, who made this project successful.

A participant

From the Inside Out: The Writers-in-Residence Project at Dubai Central Prison

Clare Mackintosh and Annabel Kantaria

For some time now, the Emirates Literature Foundation has collaborated with Dubai Central Prison and Dubai Police to organise visits from Dubai-based and international authors, to talk to inmates about books and the process of writing. Support in these areas can produce life-long skills, reducing the risk of re-offending, as well as providing inmates with ways of processing their own experiences and emotions.

After visiting the prison as part of this programme, we saw an opportunity to develop this initiative into something more tangible. We wanted not only to talk to the inmates, but to listen. We wanted to help them find their voices and tell their stories. Tomorrow, I Will Fly is the culmination of this desire: a project devised in conjunction with the Emirates Literature Foundation, and supported by Dubai Police and Dubai Central Prison. It is a year in the making, and a project of which we are extremely proud.

In November 2019 we spent a week in Dubai Central Prison, carrying out intense creative writing workshops with a group of male and female inmates. In line with the 2020 theme of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, we worked with our respective groups to establish their associations with the word ‘tomorrow’, focusing on such concepts as freedom, hope and possibility. We also considered what associations the word might have for people in different circumstances, thereby encouraging empathy and understanding for others; a crucial part of rehabilitation. Following each workshop, we were given access to other departments within the prison, free to talk to inmates and learn about their day-to-day life. You can read about our experiences in this anthology, at the beginning of the men’s and women’s sections.

The result of our week in prison is this book: a collection of essays and personal reflections, written entirely by the men and women in Dubai Central Prison. We have worked with the contributors to strengthen their story-telling, but their thoughts have not been censored or changed, and the words are their own.

Clare Mackintosh and Annabel Kantaria

February 2020

Clare Mackintosh spent twelve years in the British police force, including time on CID, in custody, and as a public order inspector. She is now a multi-award-winning author, and a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller. Together, her books have been published in more than forty countries, with more than two million copies sold worldwide. She lives in the UK.

www.claremackintosh.com

Twitter: @claremackint0sh

Annabel Kantaria was the winner of the inaugural Montegrappa Writing Prize at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in 2013. She currently has four novels published by HQ Stories in London, and a fifth currently in production. She lives in Dubai.

www.annabelkantaria.com

Twitter: @BellaKay

Instagram: @theannabelkantaria

Annabel Kantaria (L) and Clare Mackintosh

inside Dubai Central Prison

From the Men’s Central Prison

Why?

Clare Mackintosh

Writer-in-Residence, Dubai Men’s Prison

When I told people I wanted to spend a week in Dubai Central Prison, helping a group of inmates create a collection of written work, the first question they asked was, ‘Why?’ The glib answer is, ‘Why not?’ There are writers everywhere, why not in prison?

The real answer is more complicated.

There are many reasons why people end up in prison. Sometimes their actions are intended; sometimes they are the awful consequence of a poor decision, or difficult circumstances. Some feel remorse, others do not. For some, the bitterness of injustice is a constant presence. Whatever their journey, it ends the day they are sentenced, and a new chapter begins.

In 2006 my son died. It took many years before it ceased to be a struggle simply to get through the day, and years more before I addressed the deep-seated guilt that lay behind the circumstances of his death. My 2019 novel, After the End, is a fictional account of a couple faced with an impossible choice, and their journey towards respective new beginnings. Writing it unlocked a host of emotions I hadn’t previously allowed myself to feel, and slowly the sun began to shine again.

Prison inmates all experience grief. Loss of contact with their children, their partners, their friends. Loss of freedom, of rights, of self-respect. Loss of identity. You might consider that it is right and proper they lose these things – they have, after all, been convicted of crimes, many of which snatched far more away from their victims. But prison is not just a place of punishment, it is a place for rehabilitation. A place for inmates to consider the impact their actions have had on others.

During my police service I trained as a Restorative Justice facilitator, opening communication channels between victims and offenders. Key to a successful outcome is establishing empathy for another person, and much of the work in that area focuses on encouraging offenders to draw on often suppressed emotions. Empathy is key to my work as a writer, too – just one of the many surprising links between my former career and my current one. Without empathy I cannot create compelling characters, or move a reader to tears. To write, one has to feel.

I have always loved the poem by Robert Frost, ‘The Road Not Taken’, which takes the reader to a yellow wood, where two paths diverge. The speaker must decide which path to take; he wishes he could travel both, could see where each lies. Inspired by this poem, in After the End I explored two alternative outcomes, allowing myself the luxury of going where Frost’s traveller could not. When I learned that the theme of 2020’s Emirates Airline Festival of Literature was ‘Tomorrow’, it struck a chord with my own explorations of the future. I knew it was perfect for the project that had begun to take shape during my first visit to Dubai Central Prison in 2019. I envisaged an anthology filled with inmates’ visions for the future – their ‘tomorrows’; an anthology written straight from the heart of individuals we too often consider only as a collective. Inmates, prisoners, convicts, felons.

Writers.

All individual, all with stories to tell and plans for their futures.

That’s why I wanted to spend a week in jail.

The second question people asked me was perhaps more predictable. ‘Are you nervous?’ And I was. Very nervous. Nervous that this project was too ambitious; that a week wasn’t nearly long enough to encourage fledgling writers to tap into their emotions and produce a first draft. Nervous that my students wouldn’t engage, wouldn’t listen. Nervous that I’d say the wrong thing – to a student, to prison staff – and end up in trouble with the authorities. I was nervous about a lot of things, but that wasn’t what they meant.

They meant, was I nervous about my personal safety?

Not for a second. The men in my workshops had made a commitment. They were keen to learn, grateful for the opportunity to take part in such a ground-breaking project, and – most importantly – they had things they wanted to say. Why would they jeopardise that by being aggressive?

The men were cautious at the start of the week, unsure of me, and of each other. We talked about ‘tomorrow’ – what it meant for us literally, and in a more abstract sense. We read poetry, including Jenny Joseph’s brilliant ‘Warning (When I am an old woman I shall wear purple…)’ which we dissected amid much laughter. We inched towards a ‘tomorrow’ that included that red-letter day: their release from prison. For some it was mere months away, for others a decade or more, but for them all it would mark the end of the worst chapter of their lives.

With around ninety per cent of Dubai’s prison population originating from foreign climes, the majority of inmates face deportation the day they leave prison. This carries with it a host of considerations that don’t apply for Emirati prisoners, or for prisoners in many other countries. Imagine leaving the country in which you have made your home, started a business, built a support network of friends. What happens to your spouse, your children? As we talked, I realised how little I understood about these people’s lives.

Learning to mind-map was a crucial part of our week together. This type of structured ‘thought showering’ is a useful way to generate ideas, and is an exercise that is simple to explain and to follow. Decisions in prison are mostly made for you, and this lack of freedom can atrophy the creative muscle. Together, we woke it up. We mapped elements relating to the day of release, drilling down until each thought sparked dozens more. In this way we explored the first phone call the men might make on the outside: where they’ll be, how the phone will feel in their hand, who they’ll call, what they’ll say. We had created an environment of trust and respect, where no suggestion was foolish, and slowly the men began to share their feelings.

‘I won’t be able to say anything,’ said one. ‘I’ll be too emotional.’

‘I don’t know who I’ll call,’ said another. ‘I don’t know who’s still speaking to me.’

I left them, at the end of that first day, creating a mind map that would form the basis of their final essay, and I sat in my hotel room, too exhausted even to call home.

As any

Reviews for Tomorrow, I Will Fly

[aiman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

amazing! 10 out of 10! it was so interesting! i loved it