The Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) recently announced the winners of the Katara short story competition, which was launched as part of the activities of Doha, Capital of Culture in the Islamic World 2021, and as a continuation of the short story competitions that Katara launches annually in the holy month.
The Sudanese contestant Mohamed Ismail won first place for his story entitled ‘The Brothers of Youssef’ and a prize of QR15,000. The Syrian contestant Suzan Ibrahim al-Saabi won second place for her story ‘Away from a Balcony,’ and a prize of QR12,000, while the third place was awarded to the Iranian contestant, Ahmad Abdul-Imam Jabri, for his story ‘Dwar’ and won a prize of QR10,000.
Katara launched the Short Story Competition 2021 during the holy month of Ramadan and identified the topic ‘kith and kin’ to be the main focus around which the stories participating in the competition revolved, given the great importance that Islam attached to the relationship of kinship and charity to relatives. For the first time, participation in the competition was available from participants from outside Qatar, where the number of participants reached about 438 contestants.
The Katara Short Story Competition allowed writers of both genders to participate without age restrictions, provided that the contestant has the right to participate in only one story.
Katara has launched a package of competitions during the last period within the activities of Doha, Capital of Culture in the Islamic World 2021, and allocated valuable prizes for them, such as launching a research competition in Islamic, linguistic and rhetorical studies, a competition for ideas for mobile applications and the Katara Prize for Arabic Poetry.