QNA
Doha
The Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) has announced that the Katara Prize for Novel and Art received an overwhelming response with a total of 266 entries across three prize categories. Among these, 93 entries were submitted for the published novel category, 91 for the unpublished novel category, and 82 for the young writers’ novel category.
Egypt and Sudan led the way with the highest number of participants, totaling 101 entries. Following closely behind was the Levant and Iraq with 67 participants, and the Arab Maghreb with 63 participants. Additionally, there are 33 entries from the Arabian Gulf, and it’s worth noting that two participants have joined from non-Arab countries, making the competition diverse and inclusive.
The essence of the competition lies in painting captivating book covers for the Eighth Edition of The Katara Prize For Novel 2022. These covers will be printed in both Arabic and other languages and will be handed out during the Ninth Edition of The Katara Prize For Arabic Novel Festival, set to take place in October 2023. The festival will coincide with the International Arabic Novel Week, scheduled from October 13 to 20.
For the first time, women have achieved the highest participation percentage across all three award categories in this year’s competition. In the published novels category, an impressive 55 women submitted their entries, surpassing the 38 entries from male participants. Similarly, in the category of unpublished novels, the number of female contestants amounted to 51, while there were 40 male contestants. Furthermore, in the young writers’ novels category, a remarkable 47 women participated, while there were 35 male participants.
The competition set out a number of conditions for the painting, mandating it to be hand-painted with a length of 19 cm and a width of 16 cm. The size of the drawing can be scaled while keeping the same length and width ratios.
The winner of the best cover painting for each novel is awarded a prize of $500. Additionally, the winning painting will be featured on the cover of the corresponding novel, with due credit to the talented artist.
