What started off as a passion project, has now turned into a career for these two UAE-based authors. Ebtisam Al-Beiti and Kathy Urban have helped grow their community of children's authors and are making strides to empower writers in the region.

Urban, author of three children’s books, told that the writing process can be quite lonesome. She said when she was getting her start in writing children’s books, she didn’t have what was most important – a support group. Urban had to spend hours researching and looking for solutions, which would’ve been easier had she had support from like-minded people.

“We have lots of new members [in the group] asking the same questions I asked many years ago,” she said. “I think that reassurance helps you and empowers you to know you’re on the right path to making the book you always wanted to make.”

Al-Beiti, an Emirati author who has also published three books, said that since she started writing books during the pandemic in 2020, the Emirates Literature Foundation has played a big part in supporting her projects. “We are very fortunate to be living here to have such a supportive community around us. They [the ELF] are always looking out for local talent, not just Emirati talent,” she said.

For Urban, finding a community was a little more challenging. Even after connecting with other children’s authors on Facebook groups, the support wasn’t as strong. “I think there’s a difference between speaking to someone in a different country about their experience because the market over there might be very different to the market over here,” Urban said.

Nonetheless, Urban still managed to publish her books, and said that it took a big push from her husband to start writing in the first place as it was very time-consuming. “Writing is like another baby,” Urban laughed. “It takes at least nine or 10 months, from the writing to the editing, to the illustration, the design, the printing.”

Al-Beiti, who has experience with educating young children, said that her role as an educator influences the topics she writes about in her books. “With the topics, I would always go back to children’s milestones, and then use those milestones as a main topic." Al-Beiti added that her books tend to focus on issues like accepting and celebrating oneself.

Urban, on the other hand, said that a lot of her books are grounded in her own childhood experiences. “I always go back and find inspiration in my own childhood, looking at themes that are relevant today and thinking, what would little me be thinking?” she said. Her books include important themes, but they’re packaged in a way that makes it fun for her little readers. “It's not just about adventures, but adventures that address important topics such as mental health and the environment,” Urban said.

In the UAE, where people of many different cultures and backgrounds reside, it is important to have themes in books that resonate with all children. Al-Beiti is Emirati, while Urban is German. The subject matter in their books is universal. “We all go through the same issues,” Al-Beiti said. “Our books connect because our themes are all similar.”

“The UAE does offer us the access to sharing different types of stories,” Urban added. “I think there's a lot more that connects us than what disconnects us.”