The Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) announced the winners of the Katara short story competition, which was launched as part of the activities of Doha, Capital of Culture in the Islamic World 2021, and as a continuation of the short story competitions that Katara launches annually in the holy month.

The Sudanese contestant Mohammed Ismail won first place for his story entitled "The Brothers of Youssef" and a prize of QR 15,000. The Syrian contestant Suzan Ibrahim Al Saabi won second place for her story "Away from a Balcony," and a prize of QR 12,000, while the third place was awarded to the Iranian contestant, Ahmad Abdul-Imam Jabri, for his story "Dwar" and won a prize of QR10,000.

Katara launched the Short Story Competition 2021 during the period from the beginning of Ramadan 2021until the end of the holy month and identified the topic "kith and kin" to be the main focus around which the stories participating in the competition revolve, given the great importance that Islam attached to the relationship of kinship and charity to relatives. For the first time, participation in the competition was available from participants from outside Qatar, where the number of participants reached about 438 contestants.

Among the conditions included in the competition, the story should not be less than 1,500 words and not more than 5,000 words, written in Standard Arabic, and has not been previously published before, or won an award so that it is specific for the competition only.

The Katara Short Story Competition allowed writers of both sexes to participate without age restrictions, provided that the contestant has the right to participate in only one story.

Katara has launched a package of competitions during the last period within the activities of Doha, Capital of Culture in the Islamic World 2021, and allocated valuable prizes for them, such as launching a research competition in Islamic, linguistic and rhetorical studies, a competition for ideas for mobile applications and the Katara Prize for Arabic Poetry. (QNA)