The Flying Saucer: Experimental Texts in Science Fiction Literature

In July 2022, the Community Programme in the Learning and Research Department at Sharjah Art Foundation invited local writers to take part in a writing workshop at The Flying Saucer, the futuristic Sharjah landmark designed by Ali Nour El-Din Nassar in the 1970s. As one of the Foundation’s main venues, the workshop’s objectives were to celebrate the unusual building and its symbolic value, activate the role of science fiction literature in the community and create a platform for creatives. The workshop created an opportunity for locally-based writers to exchange ideas and narratives around the science fiction genre. Together, they sculpted stories and drew out mythical riddles from the folds of flying saucer tales.

The results of this workshop and the writers’ subsequent creative efforts appear in this book, arranged so that readers can move through the stories without pausing. A thread holds the texts together as if they were one story stretched between two ends, one in the hand of the narrator and the other in the dome of The Flying Saucer.

The writers who contributed to this anthology are Hessa Abdulla, Shaikha Abdulla Almteiri, Mariam Alzarooni, Sabah Deebi, Muhammad Mahdi Hamida, Salha Obaid Hassan, Ghaith Hassan Al Hosani, Sahar Naja Mahfouz, Hassan Ali Al Najjar, Noura Al Noman and Ali Al Shaali. The cover has been designed and illustrated by Ruba Al Araji.