266 Compete for Katara Prize for Novel and Art

Katara Qatar

The Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) announced that the Katara Prize for Novel and Art has received 266 entries across three prize categories. There were 93 entries in the published novel category, 91 in the unpublished novel category ,and 82 in the young writers' novel category.

Egypt and Sudan had the highest number of participants at 101, followed by the Levant and Iraq with 67 participants, Arab Maghreb placed 3 with 63 participants, and the Arabian Gulf with 33 participants, and with only two participants from non-Arab countries.

The idea of the competition is to paint book covers for the Eighth Edition of The Katara Prize For Novel 2022, which will be printed in Arabic and other languages, and will be handed out during the Ninth Edition of The Katara Prize For Arabic Novel Festival, which is scheduled to take place in October 2023, simultaneously with the International Arabic Novel Week which is happening from Oct 13th to 20th.

For the first time in the competition, women constituted the highest participation percentage in the three award categories, with 55 in the published novels category, compared with 38 for men. In the category of unpublished novels, the number of female contestants was 51, compared with 40 males, while in the category of young writers' novels, the number of female participants was 47, compared with 35 males.

The competition set out a number of conditions for the painting, requiring 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. Paintings are to be handed without a signature, and the artist can participate with only one drawing for each work, with the painting being related to the content of the novel.

The winner of the best cover painting for each novel receives USD 500, alongside placing the winning painting on the cover of the novel, with credit to the artist, and the rights for the winning painting goes to Katara.

The Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) launched a new edition of the Katara Prize for Novel and Art from last May to 30th June.

Katara Prize for Novel and Art launched primarily during the 3rd Edition of the Katara Arabic Novel Festival in 2017, participation in the first editions of the competition was limited to Qatari artists. In 2020, participation in the competition was opened to all Arab artists.

(QNA)