Emirates Novel Award announces winning novels of its second cohort
16 Apr 2015
“The Last Day” wins the Award’s “Best Novel” category and “Cities of Eagerness” named “Best Short Novel”
Winners of the second cohort of the Emirates Novel Award, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the National Media Council, and powered by twofour54, were announced today at a press conference in the presence of Jamal Al Shehhi, Secretary General of the Emirates Novel Award, and jury members.
Winners were selected by members of a special jury that included: Ali Abu Al Reesh, Talal Al Saberi, Lulwa Al Mansoori, Sultan Fasial Al Rumaithi, and Ahmad Amiri.
Ahmad Al Hammadi was named the first-place winner of the Award’s “Best Novel” category for his novel, “The Last Day”, while Nadia Al Najjar received first-place award in the “Best Short Novel” category for her novel, “Cities of Eagerness”. “Our Farm Conquers” by Hessa Al Mansouri, and “The Devil’s Hut” by Mohammad Al Habsi were both awarded Commendation awards.
HE Noura Al Kaabi, CEO of twofour54, said: “The Emirates Novel Award is an initiative that aims to promote Arabic literature, encourage creativity of local authors, and supplement the local cultural scene with distinct new talent.”
“The Emirates Novel Award is consistent with twofour54’s mission of nurturing creative Emirati talent. twofour54 and the Emirates Novel Award work together to provide the right foundation and support for young story tellers to create new content in the Arabic language to add to the richness of our culture. Through this partnership, we help these young writers to publish their creative work and promote it through various media platforms,” she added.
Jamal Al Shehhi, Secretary General of the Emirates Novel Award, commented: “The second cycle of the Emirates Novel Award has successfully attracted a large group of talented authors and we were pleased to witness the quality of writing and the variety of subjects in the works submitted.”
“This initiative has encouraged many talented Emiratis to embrace literature and novels as an avenue to document their thoughts and present them to the public. We are very proud of the winning projects and commend these for delivering works of such high quality.”
“I would also like to encourage the remaining participants to continue writing and working diligently to realise their ambitions. Participating at the Emirates Novel Award is the first step towards success and this experience puts Emirati authors well on the path to create more work in the future,” he added.
The winning novels will be published in time for print copies to be available at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair which is being held 7-10 May this year. The winners in each category received a monetary award of AED 60,000 while Commendation awards received AED 20,000.
The Emirates Novel Award was launched in 2014 and powered by twofour54 to acknowledge and support Emirati talents in literature, highlight the literary culture of the Emirati society and educate the community on the importance of reading and writing. twofour54 hosted the workshops of the Novelists’ Programme, which is set up by The Emirates Novel Award to teach aspiring Emirati novelists professional writing techniques.
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