Hmm, here is a new one. In the UK, there are some writing awards called the Muslim Writers Awards. The downlow: Muslim Writers Awards was founded in 2006 to harness creative talent and nurture aspiring writers within the Muslim community. Since its inception it has grown to become a landmark calendar event in the Muslim writers’ calendar, and attracts support from a broad range of organisations in the UK.
Interesting. Care to hear to who was nominated last year? These guys and gals:
- Published Novel
Roopa Farooki – Half Life (Macmillan, PanMacmillan)
Aamer Hussein – The Cloud Messenger (Telegram)
Shahriar Mandanipour – Censoring an Iranian Love Story (Abacus, Little, Brown Book Group)
Bahaa Taher – Sunset Oasis (Sceptre, Hodder and Stoughton)
Farahad Zama – The Wedding Wallah (Abacus, Little, Brown Book Group) - Published Children’s Book
Randa Abdel- Fattah – The Friendship Matchmaker (Omnibus Books, Scholastic)
Na’ima B Robert – Far From Home (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, Janetta Otter-Barry Books)
Rukhsana Khan – Wanting Mor (Groundwood)
Irfan Master – A Beautiful Lie (Bloomsbury)
Anna Perera – Guantanamo Boy (Puffin) - Unpublished Novel
Salma Bratt – Moroccan Tales of Love and Disaster
Jessica Freeland – The Other Garden
Ayshah Johnston – Scattered Pearls
Ahmed Masoud – Gaza Days
Yusuf Misdaq – Narayan - Unpublished Children’s Story
Loay El Hady – Flutterby
Muhammad Islam – Zayd and the Papyrus of Damascus
Reba Khatun – The Case of the Disappearing Pets
Wendy Meddour – A Hen in the Wardrobe
Mehded Sinclair – When Wings Expand - Unpublished Short Story
Shahnaz Ahsan – Mother
Tam Hussain – Little Flecks of Silver
Sahin Kathawala – Malison Orison
Lori Zakariyya King – Series Two, Episode Fourteen
Hanzla Arif MacDonald – Sketches of Early Adult Life
Daniel Oliver – Strange Marriage - Unpublished Poetry
Safina Akram – Alas How I Miss My Sleep, and others
Saleha Begum – Shadows in Harlequin Masks
Thomas Evans – Beard is Beautiful, and others
Lori Zakariyya King – Kitchen Set Libel, and others
Shamim Razaq – To Keats, and others - Stage and Screen Play
Malik Basso – Somewhere Near You
Conor Ibrahiem – Yours Faithfully
Qaisra Shahraz – The Holy Woman
Faisal Qureshi – The Footsoldier
- Young Journalist (16-25)
Saman Anwar – Meddling in Marrakech, and others
Siraj Datoo – Ethnic Profiling, and others
Nabila Idris – A Story from Bangladesh: Licensed to Steal!
Tasnim Nazeer – Amnesty International Report 2010, and others
Iman Qureshi – Why Are All Pakistani Men being Smeared in the Sex-Grooming Cases?, and others
Never heard of any of them.