Winners of Katara Novel and Fine Arts competition announced

Doha, The Gulf Observer: The Cultural Village Foundation, Katara, announced the names of the winners of the Katara Novel and Fine Arts Competition for this year. They are nine winners distributed in the three award categories, five of whom are from Egypt, two from Iraq, and one winner from each of Syria and Palestine.

The list of winners for the category of published novels included: Abrar Walid Reema from Syria, for the cover of the novel “Intersecting Dreams,” Abdullah Abdel Alim Ziyadah from Egypt, for the novel “Smoke Memoirs of a Former Politician,” Sarah Hussein Ahmed Al Wasif from Egypt for the novel “The Embrace of Snakes.” In the category of unpublished novels, the winners are: Rana Majid Ahmad Al Louh from Palestine for his novel “The Widows of Sugar,” Ammar Salem from Iraq for his novel “The Tower,” Mayada Hassan Nazeer Abdel Qawi from Egypt for his novel “Bahr and Hanin.” Meanwhile, under the category of unpublished novels by boys, Hussein Nima Hussein from Iraq won for the novel “The Wonderful Journey to the Moroccan Hamra,” Rawand Abd al Ati Rizk Suleiman from Egypt for the novel “Hidden Cities,” and Wafaa Abd al Rahim Abd al Wahhab from Egypt for the novel “Small Wars.” The number of entries in the Katara Novel and Fine Art Competition 2023 has reached 266, in the three categories of the award, as the number of entries in the category of published novels has reached 93, and in the category of unpublished novels, and novels for boys, 91 each.

The highest number of participants came from Egypt and Sudan with 101, and the Levant and Iraq ranked second with 67, and in the third place the Arab Maghreb with about 63, followed by the Arab Gulf with 33, while the number of non-Arab countries reached only two.

For the first time in the history of the competition, females achieved the highest participation rates in the three categories of the award, as their participation in the category of published novels reached 55, compared to 38 for males.

The winner of the “most beautiful cover painting for each novel” will receive an amount of $500, in addition to placing the winning painting on the cover of the novel, and mentioning the artist’s name in the publication.

The Cultural Village Foundation, Katara had launched the Katara Novel and Fine Art Competition during the period from early April to June 30, 2021. The competition is based on drawing the outer cover painting for the publications of the Katara Prize for Arabic Fiction in its sixth session 2020 in the categories of published and unpublished novels and unpublished novels by boys, with specific technical conditions, foremost of which comes that the painting expresses the content of the novel.