Emirates Airline Festival of Literature announces the winners of First Chapter of The ELF Seddiqi Writers’ Fellowship
DUBAI, 5th February, 2022 -The first recipients of First Chapter, the ELF Seddiqi Writers’ Fellowship were announced today at a special ceremony at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.
The ten winners were selected from the 120 applicants writing in Arabic and English by their prospective mentors, internationally published authors Mark Billingham, Yrsa Siggurdottir, Patrick Gale, Ali Sparkes, Shobhaa De, Greg Mosse, Annabel Kantaria, Shahad Al Rawi, Taleb Al Refai and Najwa Bin Shatwan.
The first global standard mentorship programme in the region for aspiring writers, it was launched by the Emirates Literature Foundation in partnership with Seddiqi Holding to identify and nurture emerging writing talent from the UAE, enabling the successful participants to hone their skills through one-to-one sessions with the authors.
The winners are:
Moxie Anderson chosen by Mark Billingham
Sara Hamdan chosen by Yrsa Siggurdottir
Yi-Hwa Hanna chosen by Patrick Gale
Mustafa Alrawi chosen by Ali Sparkes
Zana Bonafe chosen by Shobhaa De
Reem Hameed chosen by Greg Mosse
Kate Tindle chosen by Annabel Kantaria
Arabic
Huda Al Rawajfa chosen by Shahad Al Rawi
Mona Al Ali chosen by Taleb Al Refai
Sara Al Abdullah chosen by Najwa Bin Shatwan
“We knew that there was an amazing pool of talent in the region, but we were really astonished by the extremely high calibre of the submissions.
Each winner was hand-picked by their mentor, chosen by them because they could see their potential and felt they would be able to help them reach it,” said Ahlam Bolooki, Festival Director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.
“It means that some very accomplished writers were not selected, although they are of a publishable standard, and we are intending to put some classes in place to help this group too.
For those who have been chosen…