SHARJAH, 14th November, 2026 (WAM) -- The powerful relationship between place, memory and imagination, and the responsibility of writers to preserve the identities of places undergoing transformation, formed the focus of a panel discussion titled ‘The Geography of Memory: Writing the Places That Made Us’ at the 45th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF 2026).
The three writers, Nnedi Okorafor from the United States, Diaa Jubaili from Iraq and Nasser Al Dhaheri from the UAE, came from different cultural backgrounds and worked across different literary and creative genres, but shared the view that geography is a living presence in storytelling.
Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor, a New York Times bestselling writer of speculative fiction and fantasy, reflected on how her childhood journeys to Nigeria became the foundation of stories that went beyond realism. She noted that the imagined futures in her fiction were rooted in her ancestral memory.
Commenting on her choice of setting, she said: “I just followed the stories. And I found that Nigeria was very much where the energy was.”
As her stories move across countries, cultures, imaginary landscapes and even planets, Okorafor immerses herself fully in the worlds she creates. “When I'm writing a place, when I'm writing a setting, I'm very much there,” she noted.
For Diaa Jubaili, an Iraqi novelist and short-story writer born in Basra in 1977, war and childhood memories have become material for fiction. Two rivers in his hometown acquired contrasting meanings in his stories, one representing longing and renewal, and the other war, bloodshed and suffering.
He described a fictional story about a military diver, known as a frogman during the 1980s war, who becomes caught on a fisherman's hook many years after disappearing into the river and asks whether the war has ended.
Recalling his first school, encounters with water and a café that had a formative influence on him, Jubaili explained how personal memories of places continue to shape his imagination.
“I bring together the pen and the lens. If the pen fails me, the lens comes to my aid; and if the lens abandons me, the pen flows with ink to capture these things,” said Emirati writer and filmmaker Nasser Al Dhaheri.
For Al Dhaheri, the origins of storytelling lie in childhood memories of “an oasis formed between the mountain, the palm trees and the desert”, his grandmother's storytelling and a sidr tree that served as a community gathering place.
The death of the tree and the disappearance of the neighbourhood also symbolised the UAE's rapid urban transformation, which Al Dhaheri has captured through his films and photography.
He added: “Preserving a place and its memory may be more the domain of writers and creative artists than of historians or journalists.”
Organised by the Sharjah Book Authority, the 45th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF 2026) runs from November 4 to 15 at Expo Centre Sharjah under the theme ‘Made of Stories’, with the Sultanate of Oman as Guest of Honour. The fair brings together 3,212 publishers and exhibitors from 126 countries, showcasing more than 1.7 million titles. Its programme features 1,500 cultural, creative and artistic events, with 106 guests from 25 countries.