Applications for the 17th session of the Ghanem Ghobash Short Story Award opened on January 19
Sharjah, 14 January / WAM / The Emirates Writers and Writers Union announced the launch of the seventeenth session of the Ghanem Ghobash Short Story Award for the year 2026, emphasizing its established cultural status and its importance in supporting literary creativity, since its launch in 1989, as one of the leading cultural initiatives that contribute to enhancing the art of the short story and consolidating the presence of the Arabic language in the Emirati creative scene.
The award bears the name of the late Emirati writer and writer Ghanem Ghobash, and comes in recognition of his prominent cultural and social contributions, and the influential intellectual presence he represented in the process of national culture, as the Union continued, through this award, to perpetuate his creative legacy and support new generations of writers.
The Union will receive entries from January 19 to February 25, through the award’s website, and the winning works will be announced on Emirati Writer’s Day on May 26, 2026.
Sheikha Al Jabri, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Writers and Writers Union, Secretary General of the Award, confirmed that the Award represents an important literary platform through which the Union is keen to encourage talented writers from the Emirates, especially the youth.
She explained that the Union continues in this session to strengthen the award’s paths, represented by its “short story” and “story collection” branches, noting that literary awards constitute a real catalyst for creativity and contribute to discovering new energies and refining distinguished experiences.
The conditions for participation in the award, in the short story category, include that the applicant must be at least 18 years old, the number of words in the story must be between 1,000 and 3,000 words, the story must be written in classical Arabic, and original and not previously published. Participation is limited to citizens of the UAE. Handwritten stories are not accepted, and participation is not permitted with more than one story. The Emirates Writers and Writers Union reserves the right to print and publish the winning works in a special issue, and entries are sent via the electronic form available on the award’s official website.
As for the conditions for participating in the award for the short story collection category, the applicant must be at least 18 years old. Only one short story collection is permitted to participate, provided that the short story collection is original and written in the classical Arabic language. Participation is limited to citizens of the country. Unpublished short story collections are accepted, and newly published collections are also accepted provided that they have not been published more than three years ago and are issued by an accredited publishing house. Short story anthologies or collections shared by more than one author are not accepted.
Five paper copies of the short story collection will be sent to the headquarters of the Emirates Writers and Writers Union in Abu Dhabi, attached to the participation form available on the official website.
The Union allocated cash prizes to the winners of the first three places in each category, where the first winner in the short story gets 10,000 dirhams, the second place winner gets 8,000 dirhams, while the third winner’s prize is worth 5,000 dirhams, the first winner in the story collection category gets 15,000 dirhams, the second winner gets 10,000 dirhams, while the third winner’s prize is worth 6,000 dirhams.
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