The Writers Union announces the winners of the 16th Ghanem Ghobash Award for the short story

Sharjah, June 16 / WAM / The Emirates Writers Union announced the results of the sixteenth session of the Ghanem Ghobash Award for the short story of 2025.

The first place in the short story category, Abeer Ahmed Al -Harthy, won her story “The most sentence in the market” and the second place, Khawla Awad Al -Ketbi, for her story “Four Chamber”, and the third place Talib Ghuloom Talib for his story “Hunger Game”.

The jury of the award decided to block the first and third places in the category of the anecdotal group for the lack of completion of the advanced literary and artistic standards required, while the second place was granted equally to each of Dr. Latifa Al -Hajj for her anecdotal collection “Ibn Al -Wahha”, and Ubayd Bou Malaha for his collection “Ali Kaifk”.

The committee noted a number of distinguished posts in the short story category, which is the story of “The Best Possible Worlds” by the storyteller Mohamed Youssef Zainal, the story of “Salloum Mainon” by the storyteller Sheikha Ali Al -Kuwaiti, and the story of “Requesting a resignation” for the storyteller Hind Saif Al -Bar.

The announcement of the results came after the end of the jury’s work and meetings, chaired by the writer Abdel Hamid Ahmed, and was attended by the members of the committee, Dr. Badia Al Hashemi, Lulwa Al Mansouri, Abdel Fattah Sabry, Islam Abu Shaker, and the attendance of the Secretary -General of the award, Sheikha Al -Jabri, the committee discussed the participating business in the “Short Story and the Story Group”.

The jury confirmed in its report that the blocking decisions come within the framework of preserving the qualitative level of the award, praising at the same time a remarkable development in the narrative methods and ideas of some participants, especially from the youth category.

Commenting on the results of the current session, Sheikha Al -Jabri confirmed that the award continues to establish its position as a prominent cultural platform to discover and care for Emirati literary talents, noting that the award is one of the important cultural initiatives launched by the Emirates Writers and Writers Union, and bears a great symbolic dimension as it bears the name of the late writer and writer Ghanem Ghobash, one of the pioneers of culture and thought in the country.

Al -Jabri added that the award contributed over sixteen rounds, to highlighting new narrative sounds, and strengthening the art of story as an essential tributary of the national cultural identity by encouraging young generations to write and creativity with contemporary methods that reflect the reality of society and its aspirations.

She emphasized the keenness of the Emirates Writers and Writers Union that this session be different by adding a new branch of the award, which is the anecdotal group, and said that the jury has done its work to the fullest through the observance of neutral and objectivity in order to present distinguished works known as the creative voices in the country, which reflects the union’s keenness and the jury to preserve the award level and its cultural reputation.

For his part, the writer Abdel Hamid Ahmed, head of the jury, said that this session witnessed promising works that reflect a tangible development in the narrative experience of some writers, especially in the short story category and we noticed a diversity in the topics and a conscious employment of artistic techniques, which deserved appreciation and mention, and in return, decisions must be taken in the category of storytelling, in order not to pass the work not to pass. It rises to the level we aspire to a prize bearing the name of an influential writer in cultural awareness, such as Ghanem Ghobash, and describing the award as not only honor, but a responsibility towards the reader and the cultural scene.

The committee issued a number of recommendations to develop the award in its next sessions, the most prominent of which is its call to add a very short stories category “less than 1000 words”, publish the winning works in local newspapers, organize training workshops for young writers through the Story Club, as well as reviewing the criteria of participation and developing business screening mechanisms.

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