SHARJAH – In celebration of the Sharjah World Book Capital 2019, the UAE Board on Books for Young People’s (UAEBBY) ‘Read. Dream. Create’ campaign launched the third edition of the ‘Creative Imagination’ competition, at the ongoing Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) 2019.
Targeting children and young adults aged 6-18 years, the competition aims to ignite their imagination and encourage them to write or illustrate stories creatively.
This year’s edition of the competition has two categories, creative writing, and silent book. Open to UAE residents from the specified age group, the competition stipulates that all participants fill out the application form on the campaign’s website: http://readdreamcreate.ae/rdc/writing-competition/registration/ where they can also attach their stories or illustrations.
Participants can include illustrations in their stories if they wish. However, the entries should align with human values and morals and express new and innovative ideas. The deadline for receiving entries is January 4, 2020.
The stories must be original, written in Arabic and should be submitted in the Microsoft Office Word format. Entries in any other format, as well as hand-written texts, will be disqualified. Silent book illustrations should be presented on A4 and A3 papers, using watercolors, wooden color pens, oil colors, charcoal or ink, among other mediums. Silent book illustrations should be sequential to build up the story.
Meera Al Naqbi, Public Relations Executive at UAEBBY, underlined that the third edition of the competition aims to bring together children and books. She hoped the event would attract a large number of entries in both categories from promising children and talented young writers and illustrators.
The competition will award prizes worth AED 9,000 to the winners. The winner of the first prize will receive AED 5,000, as well as a collection of selected books, the opportunity to meet a famous children’s book writer and attend all UAEBBY workshops.
The winner of the second prize will receive AED 3,000, a collection of valuable books and a certificate. The third prize is AED 1,000 in cash and a collection of books. All three prize-winning stories will be published on the campaign’s website
Launched in 2013 by the UAEBBY, ‘Read. Dream. Create’ campaign aims to bring children and books together. It also aims to encourage children and young people to read, innovate and create, as well as develop their writing skills and transform their ideas into engaging, well-written stories. The campaign aims to help develop a better understanding of the needs of Arab children in the field of children’s literature.
