Sharjah International Book Fair 2025 Lineup Announced

The Sharjah International Book Fair 2025 will feature the highly anticipated fourth edition of the Thriller Festival from November 8 to 11 at Expo Centre Sharjah, showcasing global voices in crime fiction, psychological suspense, and mystery. Organised in collaboration with Thriller Festival New York, this year’s festival unites 13 international and regional masters of crime writing, screenwriting, and suspense, including American authors Chris Pavone, Jennifer Hillier, and Matt Witten; Nordic noir experts Ragnar Jónasson and Eva Björg Ægisdóttir; UK novelists Araminta Hall and Clare Whitfield; and South Asian writers S. Hussain Zaidi (India) and Omar Shahid Hamid (Pakistan).

A notable highlight is the premiere of Murder at the Majlis, a live interactive play by American University of Sharjah alumna Bhoomika Ghaghada, performed by AUS students. The drama intertwines local culture and community theatre, inviting audiences to solve a live mystery and celebrating homegrown storytelling.

The festival will include panel talks, masterclasses, workshops, and book signings covering all facets of thriller writing, from plot construction and character development to adapting novels for screen. Attendees can explore sessions such as “Scene One, Chapter One: Translating Novels to Screen,” and workshops on writing thrillers through cultural perspectives, crafting fear, and threading trauma into stories.

This edition coincides with the broader Sharjah International Book Fair (November 5-16), which will welcome 2,350 publishers and exhibitors from 118 countries, hosting over 1,200 cultural sessions and 750 workshops to reaffirm Sharjah’s reputation as a leading literary capital.

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