Alia Alshamsi never set out to add “children’s author” to her list of accomplishments. But her story about Alayah, a girl born with pesky grains of sand in her hair that never seem to go away no matter how much she wills it, demanded to be told.
A photographer, photojournalist and poet, the 32-year-old Emirati-Italian had spent plenty of time making up stories for her 4-year-old son, Ahmad, and the reflective process of writing became a tonic for the hectic pace of her life.
“I was taking a walk in the sand on a beloved beach of mine in Jumeirah – I grew up playing on that beach,” says Alshamsi. “I was at a stage in my life where I really wanted to slow down and re-evaluate.
“I feel we’ve lost touch with reflection because our lifesftyles are so fast, leaving no time for us to really enjoy anything. I was feeling so lost, and while walking, the sand got everywhere – in my feet, my hair, my clothes. So I just sat down and started writing on the beach.”
Alshamsi’s writing is simple and lilting, the choice of words geared towards children between the ages of 4 and 8. The story is about Alayah, an old-fashioned Emirati nickname for the name Alia.
“It’s quite personal to me. My grandmother used to call me Alayah, but no one else really, it’s so old school – it’s a self-reflective story,” says Alshamsi, who grew up in Dubai, close to Alayah’s beach.
“Alayah lives in Jumeirah and was born with sand in her hair. At first she is so annoyed by it. Years go by, and she hardly notices it any more, taken as she is with all the changes happening in Dubai and in her Jumeirah. She finds herself farther and farther away from the shores she played on as a child, but the sand in her hair is always there – it connects her, it’s her roots.
“I think people can relate to Alayah’s story. Many of us live in a place where we didn’t grow up, but we carry a piece of home in us wherever we go.”
Alshamsi showed her story to her friend, Iman Ben Chaibah, the founder of Sail Publishing, an Emirati publishing house for digital books and magazines, who begged to be allowed to publish Alayah as an e-book.
“So many kids nowadays have iPads, so why not give them a story they can access using something already in their hands?” says Alshamsi. “It’s like coming towards them, finding a middle ground to get them to read. Releasing it as an e-book was a good way to test the market.”
Ben Chaibah also encouraged Alshamsi to attend the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature and take part in workshops on writing for children, which she did last year.
“One workshop taught me how to break down a book into 12 pages, how a story develops into a middle, then how it ends, and how to address different age groups,” she says. “I didn’t have any idea of what a 3-year-old would grasp and the nuances of language for that age. I used to just write.”
When it came to illustrations for the book, Alshamsi turned to another childhood friend, Hedaya Al Rahmah.
"I feel blessed that I worked with two friends on Alayah, and Hedaya really understood my passion for the story and added her own touch, the result was perfect," says Alshamsi.
Emirati Al Rahmah, 32, who works as a buyer for the shopping brand S*uce, grew up in Belgium, Australia, Singapore and the UAE. She has worked on illustrations for S*uce and collaborated on an art project with Wamli.com. All of her artwork, she says, features characters with a story or theme, created with a touch of humour.
"This is my style of drawing, so I decided to stick to it when I was drawing Alayah," she says. "Her hair is not really blonde, it's more like Alia's hair, more on the light-brown side, because I felt that Alia was so passionate about the story and so I felt I had to incorporate something about Alia into the character. And sand tends to make the hair a bit lighter, so it's like a mix of brown with sand."
Alshamsi’s life has been a whirlwind. After leaving her job as an adjunct teacher of photography at American University of Sharjah, she is busier than ever, writing poetry, which she plans to publish, and working for Meraas in Dubai, while continuing to write children’s stories.
Alayah is in the process of being translated into Arabic, with plans to publish it at the beginning of the 2015-2016 academic year. A second e-book, also illustrated by Al Rahmah and published by Sail Publishing, is in the works and will be released about the same time. Titled Booh, Where Are You?, Alshamsi says it is "about a girl who loses her imaginary friend – it's about growing up, a little about nostalgia, a little about memory".
She also hopes Alayah develops into a series and will appear in print – but on her own terms.
"This is a passion project – I don't want to give up any aspect of it or commercialise it, I stand by it," she says. "We are a group of Emirati girls who love Alayah because we are just like her. She's just like us."
• Alayah is available for Kindle from Amazon for US$2.99 (Dh11) and as a download on iBooks. Visit alayahandthesandinherhair.tumblr.com and @sand_in_her_hair on Instagram
• Spontiphoria boutique and cafe in Dubai’s Al Wasl Square will host a poetry reading by Alia Alshamsi on May 26 at 7pm
artslife@thenational.ae
