ABU DHABI: Winners in the third cycle of the Emirates Novel Award, held under the patronage of Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and powered by twofour54, were announced Sunday at a press conference in the presence of Jamal Al-Shehhi, Secretary General of the Emirates Novel Award, and jury members.

Winners were selected from a pool of 25 submissions by members of a special jury that included: Mariam Jumaa Faraj, Abdullah Al-Showaikh, Shakir Noury, Mohammed Wardy, and Abdulwahab Al-Hammadi.

In the “Best Novel” category, “Guard of the Sun” by Eman Yousef, and “Cities and Women” by Saeed Al-Badi shared the first-place, while “Days of the memory of Sinmar” by Mansour Al-Alawy received the second place in the same category and “What if” by Sara Al-Abbadi received a Commendation award. Ayesha Al-Alili received the first-place award in the “Best Short Novel” category for her novel, “Iron Swing”, and “Naked Roots” by Hasna Al-Salmi was named the winner of the category’s second-place. “Citizen Sayfoul” by Salem Al-Aghbari was awarded a Commendation award as part of the winners in the “Best Short Novel” category.

Maryam Al-Mheiri, Acting CEO of twofour54, said: “twofour54 supports original content creation across all media platforms so we are delighted to empower the Emirates Novel Award, which encourages young Emirati authors to write and publish new literary works in the Arabic language.

With this year being the Year of Reading in the UAE, this initiative serves not only to add to the rich literary culture of Emirati society but also enforces a culture of reading embraced as daily practice ...”

Jamal Al-Shehhi, Secretary General of the Emirates Novel Award, commented: “We have witnessed many talented Emiratis embrace literature and novels as an avenue to document their thoughts and present them to the public through our program and awards and we are very proud of the winning projects.”