MUSLIM HANDS Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah With each passing year, my team and I are left in wonderment by the enthusiasm displayed by you, our young writers. Your enchanting poems and captivating stories allowed us to step out of our shoes to enjoy experiences far removed from our own, and for this we are very optimistic for the future of literature. We are inspired by your creativity, your dedication and your passion for the written word. Through our work in the UK and overseas we strive to empower communities; we hope this competition and magazine serve to encourage you and other young writers to continue developing your talents as wordsmiths. We are grateful to the Yusuf Islam Foundation and Islam Channel for their continued support in championing young people. It was our pleasure to work with the highly-acclaimed judges and we are thankful for their time in deciding this year’s winners. We are delighted to share this remarkable journey with you and I look forward to a bright future for each of you. Wassalam, SYED LAKHTE HASSANAIN Chairman, Muslim Hands
YUSUF ISLAM FOUNDATION Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah We are delighted once again to sponsor the Young Muslim Writers Awards. The competition has gone from strength to strength and it’s so uplifting and encouraging to see so many young writers writing so well and so imaginatively. William Wordsworth made a commitment in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads that in his poems “ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect.” So a writer might select ordinary subject matter but, by shining on them the light of his or her imagination and through the transforming power of the written word, everyday scenes and stories and happenings become spectacular, memorable and extraordinary. We know that the very first word revealed of the Qur’an was “Read” and that just a few verses on we are told that teaching is “by the pen” and so that’s where writing comes in – the two are of course inseparable. To everyone involved in the awards, particularly our young writers, please accept our heartfelt congratulations. Wassalam, ZAFAR ASHRAF Executive Director, Yusuf Islam Foundation
SHORTLIST - Poetry KEY STAGE 1 POETRY (AGES 5-7) Being A Girl - Imaani Zara Abdul-Karim Crunchy & Munchy, Guess Who I Am - Samiya Tasneem Hoque My Brother – Hassan Sajid Super Mum, Peace - Abdul Sami Riaz The Caterpillar – Zaynab Valji
KEY STAGE 2 POETRY (AGES 7-11) Feelings of Fright and Fear – Haniya Rizwan Inspiration and Death is Knocking at the Door – Myra Durrani Queen’s Birthday - Maryam Aaliyah Russell The Beauty of the Sun – Hannah Shums War and Peace – Sumayyah Qureshi
KEY STAGE 3 POETRY (AGES 11-14) The Essence of Autumn – Seher Rahman Home – Zoya Anwar The Edge of Reality, or Maybe Just a Dream – Needa Shafi The Wound – Sehrish Kauser Memories – Safiyah Rehman
KEY STAGE 4 POETRY (AGES 14-16) War Child – Imaan Irfan Doves and Petrol – Barirah Ashfak Puppets and Dolls, and other poems – Safiyya Haq Sorrowful Hues – Hanniya Kamran My Poems - Nûr-al-ayn Nisar
SHORTLIST - Short Story KEY STAGE 1 SHORT STORY (AGES 5-7) Ben’s Scary Journey – Tanisha Chowdhury Eid Mubarak - Aishah Arike Ola-Olukotun Imagination Runs Wild – Zain Durrani Mia the Maroon Fairy – Zareena Khan The Circus and the Robbery – Rayan Rasool
KEY STAGE 2 SHORT STORY (AGES 7-11) Lost – Nadia Kasmani The Golden Pocket Watch – Amena Salem The Lost Diamond – Khatijah Khaliq The Lost Prince – Aaminah Green The Wondrous World of Azile – Eliza Tahir
KEY STAGE 3 SHORT STORY (AGES 11-14) Pit Stops – Lamees Mohamed Sand – Imani Ahmed The Mysterious Vessel - Zayd Abid Russell The Road to Darkness - Hajra Naheem Akram Agent Khan – Jiyaad Ali
KEY STAGE 4 SHORT STORY (AGES 14-16) War Poppy – Ammaarah Karim Life on Hold – Esraa Abushaala The Captivation - Hibah Seedat Expect the Unexpected – Nadine Salem The Foreigner – Sumaiya Fazal
TEN RULES FOR ASPIRING POETS 1. Poems do not have to rhyme. Well, at least, not all the time always. 2. Write from the heart, not from the kidneys (and do not take advice too literally). 3. Metaphors are great but don’t mix them; that would not be good. If they begin to fly in different directions, nip them in the bud. 4. Avoid clichés like the plague. 5. Don’t do stuff that’s too vague. 6. The use of needlessly long words may result in reader alienation; rein in your sesquipedalianism in case it causes obfuscation. 7. remove punctuation and play with unexpected line breaks and spacing to give your poem extra profundity 8. Haikus can be hard so plan ahead or you will run out of sylla 9. Never ever follow rules. © BRIAN BILSTON
GLASGOW The rain I brought north with me, a Yorkshire veil, the sky like something almost-overheard or like the petrified grey bird inside the Kelvingrove Museum, its neat impression of an owl, the stuffed, beige dog that looked as if it might still howl, a rooted sentry on a tall, glass case, the cheetah with its elevated face and one raised paw. The way we tried to move as if we’d not been here before. The science test we stopped to take, to see if we were sensitive to bitterness - a white strip, held for seconds on the tongue. A strangeness they said wouldn’t last for good. Or how you couldn’t taste it and I could. © HELEN MORT
TIPS Tips for writers from Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Simon Brett OBE, crime writer: “Nothing you write is ever wasted – even if it only serves to tell you not to write that way again.” Bernardine Evaristo MBE, Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University: “Fill in the blank page. Even if you’re writing nonsense, eventually it will start to make sense and take shape.” Dame Hilary Mantel, historical novelist: “Do your research well, but don’t show it off on every page. Your reader only needs to know about a tenth of what you know.” Deborah Moggach, author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – on writing for TV or film: “Grow a thick skin. Everything you write will get changed by the producers. Don’t take it personally.” Kamila Shamsie, novelist: “Writing has to be about discovery - don’t limit your ideas about what you’re allowed to discover.” Colin Thubron, travel writer: “Take full notes as you go. The vitality of description lies in its detail.”
INKY FINGERS
Read Until your eyes bleed. Not literally of course. For you deal in metaphor; The world Where the pen Out-swashes the sword. Listen To the wind With your wings Outstretched. Tapping keys, smoothing screens Inky fingers Dripping text Get it down! On the page Scribble it Dribble Pour. Sometimes it stinks Rotting fish On a paper nose. But write it anyway For who knows What will flow. Then read it Scratch it, strike it, tear. Just don’t forget, when it’s ready The important part: To share. © ALEX KANEFSKY
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WRITING IN THE DARK
Most of us tend to rely on our sense of sight when we write. We describe settings, characters and action in visual detail, often neglecting our other senses.
My Name’s Not Friday began life as an exercise during a writing workshop. We were asked to put ourselves in a situation where we couldn’t see anything and then write a short piece of description. I imagined myself with a hood on my head. Did I know where I was or how I had got there? How did I feel about being in the dark? Suddenly all my other senses became vivid. I noticed things I wouldn’t normally be aware of. Suddenly my character became real – he was right there beside me in the dark – and he began to describe his world so that I could feel it rather than just see it. So here’s some ideas of how to use your senses and bring your own characters alive. But first, you have to close your eyes… 1 – Describe a setting using sound or smell. Let your reader discover the world of the character. You might draw them through a house toward the smell of fried chicken or take them past the chime of a grandfather clock in the hallway. The sound of a bell from outside in the alleyway will make them pause at the window before they sweep aside the bead curtain that hangs across the kitchen doorway. 2 – Bring the world within touching distance. Using the sense of touch brings your world up close. It makes it intimate and real and it slows down time as we take in the detail, drawing out dramatic moments to the full. It’s ideal for small confined spaces. You can panic the reader as you crawl on your belly through deep, damp undergrowth, the wet leaves slapping at your face as you scrape up worms with your fingertips. You can feel the thrill of plunging into cold water. Or you can relax in open space with the warmth of the sunshine or a breeze across your cheeks. 3 – Scare the living daylights out of your reader. Our senses are fine tuned as a warning system and they’re especially good at spreading alarm or heightening suspense. Surprise your reader by creeping up behind your character and tapping their shoulder. Shriek like a steam train to alarm them. And if you want to spread fear, put them alone in the darkness and make them listen to the pad of feet on a staircase or a creaking door as someone steps inside their house. If you do it well, you’ll give your reader goosebumps. (And if you can use onomatopoeia, so much the better, then we can hear the sounds for ourselves.)
4 – Give your character a history. Taste and smell work by association and are closely linked to memory and experience. The taste of vanilla could remind your character of happier days and ice cream on the beach with their long lost mum but stale tobacco will always bring back that hand the man put across their mouth when he took them. Using the senses can also stimulate a resonance with your reader’s own experience. 5 – Show your character’s relationships to other people in how they control their personal space. Who do they touch in the book? These will tend to be people they like and trust. When they don’t like someone they’ll keep their distance. How do they respond to others? Do they talk loudly or quietly? Perhaps they don’t listen when someone says something to them. And you can show their emotional state in how they react to sensory stimuli. Does that radio in the room annoy them? Are they soothed by the person playing a saxophone in the flat across the stairs? Perhaps the smell of stewed cabbage makes them anxious because it reminds them of school dinners? 6 – Do you ever feel like someone is watching you? Do you see things that other people don’t? Perhaps you get a sense of déjà vu a little too often for it to be co-incidence? In reality we have more than the 5 senses. What about our sense of balance or of hunger? What we call the sixth sense might be myth but in fiction you can use it to build your plot and make your character’s motives believable. © JON WALTER
WISHING TO BE WHAT ONE IS NOT You know? A mule is a mule a camel is a camel But sometimes things get a little mixed up And so it is that today the mule looks at the camel And the mule likes the camel So it is that today the mule looks at the camel And the mule envies the camel Look! She marvels at his slim, endless legs She watches his swaying body Her gaze travels up and down the curve Down and up the golden wave gracing his back She cannot remove her eyes from his eyes Oh! she longs for those curled up lashes! Think! The mule desires, oh how she desires! She desires to be‌a camel! To be a camel to be a camel! To be a camel‌a camel herself! Think! Think of the wonders of being a camel for a mule! Listen! For the mule speaks Camel! oh! Camel! says she shivering with admiration Camel! oh! Camel! you so elegant so proud Your steps so steady your legs so sound Never do you stumble nor fall For you no pit no whole Your eyes pierce the secrets of the shifting sand On which you pace Your feet sense the mysteries of the land On which you breed Camel! oh! Camel! By God you are favoured indeed Camel dear friend truly blessed you are! So many qualities you have! So many qualities I lack!
Heed! For the camel replies Mule! oh! mule! says the camel shivering with consternation My eyes are directed upwards straight ahead Therefore I see the path stretching before me We both have eyes legs and a brain But! Mule! oh! Mule! Your gaze is directed at your belly button You look only under your hooves Not once do you think of lifting your head Not once do you think of getting a clear vision Of the path stretching before your own eyes The meanings of the words you utter you never heed Mule! oh! Mule! Favoured by God indeed Are those who in every word every deed Never forget to sow their own seed Favoured by God indeed Are those who do not wish to be what they are not And the camel swayed away eyes turned upwards gaze straight ahead. © CHIRINE EL ANSARY
based on The Mouse and The Camel by Mawlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī
TIPS Your first tools are not paper and pencil, but your eyes, your ears, your fingertips and your heart. Your job as a poet is to LOOK, really look at the world around you and to ask questions about it. Why does it look, sound, feel the way it does? Is it the light, is it the air, is it the behaviour of the people around you? Or is your heart telling you something that makes your world seem different from the way it is to others? Always remember that words are about putting pictures and emotions into other people’s hearts and minds. There will be pictures and emotions in there already - so you can use those too by getting people to remember and put your new images next to the ones that they already hold. The sound and pattern of your words matters… a poem must feel good in the mouth and on the air. Read things aloud to test them. And don’t feel you have to make things rhyme. If you are bending your words out of shape just to find a rhyme, then don’t use rhyme - find another way to make your poem sing. Carry a notebook always and write what you hear, see, feel, touch, think, wonder. Nothing is wasted. You will hone your skills as the world’s witness and find things to write about everywhere you go. And last if you find it hard to write don’t think you can’t do it. It’s hard because it IS difficult but if you stick at it, and find your voice as a writer, find the way to put what you experience into words that other people will read or hear and then know what you mean, you will have acquired a superpower that can change the world. © NICOLA DAVIES
ADVICE
I fell in love with Theatre at a young age, through seeing my first community panto at a local theatre. Despite catching the theatre bug, growing up in a working-class community and family with little to no access to the arts, I’d assumed people like me didn’t have a voice in theatre. Little did I know that so many subsidised theatres, charities and community groups were thriving by tapping into unheard communities and voices. Now, in 2016, there is such a wide range of opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds, interested in creating work for the stage. We all have stories to tell. Including you. There are audiences waiting to hear our stories. Your stories. If you believe in yourself, work hard and keep your ears and eyes open, you can achieve anything. Don’t get it right, get it written. © JULES HAWORTH
HER LAUGHTER “Promise me, son, to come back I won’t be able to bear your absence. be merciful to a heart that has barely dodged the aches of all the years” She said, fixing her headscarf tighter, voice creaky she hugged me, but didn’t cry I did. She didn’t kiss me goodnight or read a bedtime story often didn’t bathe or play hide and seek didn’t push me on a swing often didn’t take me to school often Her fingers were always rough, the needle left eternal marks after nights of fixing the holes in my socks just after laying out mattresses on the floor so we could all sleep, my eight siblings and I just after she collected the washing just after she wrote down how much she spent that day just after she left the door open in case my Father would return after finding something to burn while the electricity was out after she gazed at the sky to look out for drones after she found a quiet spot in the house to cry after filling the water barrels ready for the next day, after doing her night prayers while watching me, all of us praying that she is able to do the same thing tomorrow she didn’t kiss me goodnight often but I did play cards with her she often won and laughed I watched I don’t want to die before I watch that again © AHMED MASOUD
MEET THE JUDGES Ahdaf Soueif is the author of the bestselling The Map of Love (Booker Prize shortlist, 1999) which has been translated into more than 30 languages, In the Eye of the Sun (1992), I Think of You (2007) and Cairo: a City Transformed (2014), her account of the Egyptian revolution of 2011. She is also a political and cultural commentator. Her Mezzaterra (2004) has been influential and her articles for The Guardian are published in the European and American press. In 2007 Ahdaf founded the Palestine Festival of Literature which takes place in the cities of occupied Palestine and Gaza. Ahmed Masoud is a writer and director who grew up in Palestine and moved to the UK in 2002. His theatre credits include Go to Gaza, Drink the Sea (London and Edinburgh 2009), Escape from Gaza (BBC Radio 4, 2011), Walaa, Loyalty (London 2014, funded by Arts Council England) and The Shroud Maker (London 2015). Ahmed is the founder of Al Zaytouna Dance Theatre where he wrote and directed several productions which have toured Europe. After finishing his PhD research, Ahmed published many journals and articles including a chapter in Britain and the Muslim World: A Historical Perspective (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011). His debut novel, Vanished – The Mysterious Disappearance of Mustafa Ouda was released in 2015.
Alex Kanefsky is a writer, performer and storyteller. He has told stories in schools, libraries, tents, caravans, forests, old stables, bookshops and museums. He is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Paper Balloon Theatre Company, telling original tales for young people and their families. He writes stories, poems, plays and film scripts. He studied Drama at the University of Exeter, then worked as a gardener, barista and binman amongst other things whilst trying out different ways of telling stories. He continues to be inspired by young people to work, experiment and play. Amanda Lees is the author of the bestselling satirical novels Selling Out and Secret Admirer (Pan) which have both received critical acclaim and have been translated into several languages. Her major teen trilogy, KUMARI, was nominated for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Amanda has a degree in drama and her first TV role was as a member of the Communist Resistance in ‘Allo ‘Allo. Amanda appears regularly on BBC radio and LBC and was a contracted writer to the hit series Weekending on Radio 4. She has appeared on Richard & Judy and on Channel 5 Live. Her short film Pros and Cons was awarded at the Hungarian Film Festival and she has several other projects in development. Amanda has completed a crime thriller set in Bulgaria and is currently working on a new psychological thriller as well as a book about her mother who set up a hospital in the jungle in Borneo.
Amerah Saleh is a spoken word artist, workshop facilitator, host, project coordinator and human rights supporter. Amerah won the Art Award at Youth 4 Excellence and became the Overall Youth 4 Excellence Award Winner in 2015. She aims to inspire social change through the creative arts and has performed across the country. She has received commissions from Channel 4, Eastern Electronic Festival, TedxBrum and REP Theatre amongst others. Through her initiative Creative Superheroes, she has helped develop and support young artists in Birmingham receive paid work and commissions. She was invited to an audience with Prince William for her work with young people through her innovative workshop programmes. Brian Bilston is a poet, perhaps best known for sharing his verse on Twitter and Facebook. Described by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme as ‘rhyme’s rapid reaction force’, he was the winner of the 2015 Great British Write Off competition and has served as Poet-in-Residence for the World Economic Forum. His first collection of poems, You Took the Last Bus Home, published with Unbound in October 2016. Caleb Femi is the Young People’s Laureate for London. As a poet his works are often described as vivid and honest delivered with an essence of musicality. Caleb has performed at the Roundhouse mainstage, Barbican, Rich Mix, Royal Festival Hall and many festivals including Latitude, Ed Fringe, Boomtown, Lovebox, Greenbelt amongst others. Caleb has also won the Roundhouse Poetry Slam and Genesis Poetry Slam and is currently working on a debut pamphlet. As a workshop facilitator, Caleb has led poetry workshops in schools in East and North London. Chirine El Ansary is an actress, performer and storyteller who grew up between Egypt and France. She is dedicated to story-performing with a deep interest in how words, voice and movement merge to create atmospheres, generate emotions, convey precise images. From 1995 to 2004 she performed mainly in ancient buildings in the old city of Cairo and in the streets, markets and old palaces of Tunis, Damascus, Asilah, Taza and Aleppo. Since then, she has performed her repertoire of stories and devised performances internationally. Her radio work includes a contribution to Naguib Mahfouz’s Trilogy and regular recordings of her own stories for RFI/MC-Doualiya. She enjoys joining the Cairo based Athar Lina organisation performing for the residents of El-Khalifa district near the great Citadel. Cornelia Funke is a writer of magical stories. Following a post-graduate course in book illustration at the Hamburg State College of Design, Cornelia Funke worked as an illustrator and designer of children’s books. Unfulfilled by the drawings she was commissioned to create, she began to write her own stories filled with fantastic and otherworldly creatures she longed to draw. It was then she discovered the storyteller that had been inside her all along. She is the author of The Thief Lord, Dragon Rider, the Inkworld series, the Ghosthunters series, When Santa Fell to Earth, Igraine the Brave and the Reckless series.
David Solomons has been writing screenplays for many years. His first feature film was an adaptation of Five Children and It (starring Kenneth Branagh and Eddie Izzard, with gala screenings at the Toronto and Tribeca Film Festivals). My Brother is a Superhero is his first novel for children.
Emily Berry’s debut book of poems, Dear Boy (Faber & Faber, 2013) won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Hawthornden Prize. She is the editor of Best British Poetry 2017 (Salt Publishing) and a contributor to The Breakfast Bible (Bloomsbury, 2013). Her second collection, Stranger, Baby, is forthcoming in 2017.
Gillian Clarke, National Poet for Wales from 2008-2016, was born in Cardiff and lives in Ceredigion. She was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in December 2010, the Wilfred Owen Award in 2012. Recent books include a writer’s journal, At the Source, and The Christmas Wren, a children’s story for grown ups. Her latest collection, Ice, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Award 2012. She has written for radio, and translated poetry and prose from Welsh. The Gathering/ Yr Helfa, written for the National Theatre of Wales, was performed on Snowdon in September, 2014. She is currently working on Zoology, a collection of poems.
Gwyneth Rees is half Welsh and half English and grew up in Scotland. She studied medicine and qualified as a doctor, working as a child and adolescent psychiatrist before she became a full-time writer. Her bestselling books include the Fairy Dust series, Cosmo and the Magic Sneeze and The Mum Hunt, winner of the Red House Award.
Haifa Zangana is an author and activist. She has published three novels and four collections of short stories among her other books; City of Widows, Dreaming of Baghdad and The Torturer in the Mirror, together with Ramsy Clark and Thomas Ehrlich Reifer. She is a founding member of the International Association of Contemporary Iraqi Studies (IACIS), co-founder of Tadhamun: Iraqi Women Solidarity, was an adviser for the United Nations Development Programme report Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World (2005) and she is a consultant at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. She is a weekly columnist for Al Quds Al Arabi, contributes to British and US media, and lectures regularly on Iraqi culture and women’s issues. Her current project focuses on encouraging women ex-detainees in Palestine and Tunisia to write about their experiences in prison.
Inua Ellams is a cross art form practitioner, a poet, playwright, performer, graphic artist and designer. He is the founder of the Midnight Run, an international, arts-filled, night-time walking experience. He is a Complete Works poet alumni and a designer at White Space Creative Agency. Across his work, identity, displacement and destiny are reoccurring themes in which he also tries to mix traditional African storytelling with contemporary poetry, pencil with pixel, and texture with vector images. His three books of poetry are published by Flipped Eye and Akashic Books, and several plays by Oberon.
Jonathan Ruppin is Literary Director at digital start-up Orson & Co. and the founder of the English PEN Translated Literature Book Club. He was a bookseller for eighteen years, including thirteen years at Foyles’ flagship branch on Charing Cross Road. He is a regular contributor to the publishing trade press and chairs literary events at a wide range of venues.
Jules Haworth is Education Producer at Soho Theatre and runs Writers’ Lab and Comedy Lab for young artists. She has read for a number of playwriting competitions including the Verity Bargate Award, Soho Young Playwrights and Soho Young Writers’ Award. As a freelance dramaturg, Jules has worked on shows including Brute by Izzy Tennyson (Ideas Tap Underbelly Award 2015, Underbelly), Muscovado by Matilda Ibini (Alfred Fagon Award 2015, Theatre 503), Your Image by Gemma Copping (Soho Young Writers’ Award 2013), Villain by Martin Murphy (Edinburgh Fringe 2016, 4* The Stage), On The Edge of Me by Yolanda Mercy (Soho Theatre and tour) and The Dogs of War by Tim Foley (Old Red Lion). Jules has also appeared as a panellist for Sphinx Theatre’s Women Centre Stage and as a judge for Directors Cut (Pleasance Theatre). Her play Pigeon Steps was longlisted for the Adrian Pagan Award 2014.
Kate Wakeling is a poet and ethnomusicologist. Her poetry has appeared in magazines and anthologies including Magma, Oxford Poetry, The Guardian, The Best British Poetry 2014 (Salt) and The Forward Book of Poetry 2016 (Faber & Faber). Her first collection of children’s poetry, Moon Juice, is published by the Emma Press and a pamphlet of poetry for adults, The Rainbow Faults, is published by The Rialto. Kate is writer-in- residence with Aurora Orchestra and her scripts, stories and verse for family audiences have featured at the Melbourne Festival, the bOing! Festival and on BBC Radio 3. She studied music at Cambridge University and is a research fellow at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance.
Kathryn White has over 30 books published for children of all ages. When They Fight, her first picture book, was selected as a notable book for social studies by the US Libraries Association and Here Comes the Crocodile was shortlisted for both the Nottingham and Sheffield Children’s Book Awards. Most recently, her picture book Ruby’s School Walk was shortlisted for the Boston Globe’s Best Read Aloud Book Award in the USA. She is a regular performer at the Edinburgh, Bath and other major literature festivals and frequently holds school events on creative writing. Kathryn has been a creative writing tutor for adults at HMP Shepton Mallet and a consultant on raising literacy standards in early years’ education. She is also a qualified TESOL teacher and runs several courses for foreign language students. Kathryn has been heavily involved in the campaign to keep libraries open in Somerset.
Marcus Sedgwick is an award-winning author of many prizes, most notably the Michael L. Printz Award 2014, for his novel Midwinterblood. Marcus has also received two Printz Honors, for Revolver in 2011 and The Ghosts of Heaven in 2016. Other notable awards include Floodland, which won the Branford-Boase Award 2001, for best debut novel for children; My Swordhand is Singing won the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2007, and Lunatics and Luck won the Blue Peter Book Award 2011. His books have been shortlisted for over forty other awards, including the Carnegie Medal (six times), the Edgar Allan Poe Award (two times) and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize (four times). Marcus was Writer in Residence at Bath Spa University for three years, reviews for The Guardian newspaper and teaches creative writing at Arvon and Ty Newydd. He is currently working on film and book projects with his brother, Julian, as well as a graphic novel with Thomas Taylor. He has judged numerous books awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Costa Book Awards. Nicola Davies is the author of more than forty books for children, fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Her work has been published in more than ten languages and has won major awards in the UK, the US, France, Italy and Germany. Nicole trained as a zoologist and her work focuses on nature and human relationships with the natural world. She has been a senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, and now regularly runs workshops for children and adults to help them find their voices as writers and advocates for nature.
Patrice Lawrence was born in Brighton, brought up in mid-Sussex and moved to London in 1994. She loved reading as a child which led her to writing her own poems and stories, taking inspiration from everyday sight and experiences. Patrice’s short stories have been featured in a variety of publications including the teen magazine True Romances, and Closure, an anthology of contemporary Black and Asian British writing. Orangeboy, Patrice’s first full length novel for young adults was published in June 2016.
Roopa Farooki was born in Pakistan and brought up in London. She studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at New College, Oxford, and turned to writing after careers in corporate finance and advertising. She has published six novels to critical acclaim and has been listed three times for the Orange Prize. She has been longlisted for the Impact Dublin literary award DSC prize for South Asian literature. In 2013 she was awarded the John C. Laurence prize from the Authors’ Foundation, for writing which improves understanding between races and she was given an Arts Council Literature award. Roopa’s novels are published in the US and in translation in thirteen countries. Her latest novel, The Good Children, was named ‘outstanding novel of the year’ by the Daily Mail in the 2014 books round up. Roopa is currently studying medicine at St George’s University of London, and teaches creative writing on the Masters programme at the University of Oxford. Safeerah Mughal is a seventeen-year-old award-winning writer and poet. In 2015 she was invited to 10 Downing Street to celebrate her achievements in writing. She was shortlisted for First Story’s National Writing Competition and was awarded the Key Stage 4 Short Story and Poetry prizes at the Young Muslim Writers Awards 2015. She shared her award-winning poetry at TEDxTeen 2016 at the O2, which was livestreamed to over 150 countries. Her future goal is to make a living from mastering the alchemy of thoughts and occasionally writing them down.
SF Said’s first book, Varjak Paw (2003), won the Smarties Prize for Children’s Literature. It has since been adapted as a stage play and an opera, and a film version is in development. The sequel, The Outlaw Varjak Paw (2005), won the Blue Peter Book of The Year. His third book, Phoenix (2013), was selected to represent the UK on the IBBY International Honour Book List, shortlisted for The Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, and nominated for both the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals. He has written widely on children’s and young adult literature for both The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, and is the founder of the #CoverKidsBooks campaign.
Shahida Rahman is an award-winning author, writer and publisher. Her highly acclaimed historical novel, Lascar, was published in 2012. Lascar was shortlisted for the Muslim Writers Awards’ Unpublished Novel Award in 2008. Other works include The Integration of the Hijab into Police Uniforms (Behind the Hijab Anthology, 2009) and The Lascar (radio play, 2009). Shahida has contributed articles on a range of social issues to numerous publications, including Best of British, The Great War, Sisters magazine, Huffington Post and Asian World. Shahida won a British Muslim Award for ‘Arts and Cultural Awareness’ in January 2015. She is currently writing her second novel.
Shemiza Rashid is a multi-award winning art practitioner, producer, broadcaster, sixth form teacher, media consultant, academic mentor. She is the founder of the children’s performing arts poetry club Shining Ummah. Shemiza is a growing voice across the community and regional radio, where she presents the Flagship Urban Kube show on InspireFM and regularly features on BBC Three Counties Radio. Shemiza has also produced the celebrity cooking show For the Love of Food and presents the quirky lifestyle show Living the Life on Islam Channel. She was presented the Asian Women of Achievement Award for Public Service in 2014 and she was shortlisted for Best Female Muslim Radio Presenter and Most Innovative Radio show at the Momo Awards. She is currently an artivist and arts producer for Revolution Arts, writing and performing alongside leading spoken word poets, theatre practitioners and artists.
Sufiya Ahmed is the award-winning author of Secrets of the Henna Girl (2012, Puffin Books) which was chosen as Best Teenage Book at the Redbridge Children’s Book Award 2013 and earned her the Brit Writers Awards’ Published Writer of the Year prize 2012. The novel was also shortlisted for the North East Teen Book Award and Rotherham Children’s Book Award, highly commended at the Sheffield Children’s Book Award and translated into Arabic, Spanish and Polish. She is the Founder and Director of the BIBI Foundation, a non-profit organisation which encourages the involvement of under-privileged children in the democratic process through visits to the Houses of Parliament. Sufiya is a full-time writer and visits schools with her author sessions to raise awareness of Girls’ Rights. She regularly contributes to the Huffington Post.
Sumayya Lee was born in South Africa during the Apartheid Era. Her debut novel, The Story of Maha (Kwela, 2007) was shortlisted for Best First Book – Africa at the Commonwealth Writers Prize and longlisted for The Sunday Times Fiction Award. The novel is currently on the English Undergraduate curriculum at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. In 2009 Sumayya published the sequel, Maha, Ever After. In 2014 and 2015 Sumayya joined Writivism as a mentor and an editor for the annual anthologies. In 2016, she served as judge alongside Tsitsi Dangarembga and others at the annual Writivism Festival in Kampala and is currently Writivism’s Editorial and Programmes Liaison. She is currently reworking an old manuscript and writing the third Maha novel. Sumayya has co-edited the 2015 anthology Roses for Betty and Other Stories with Emmanuel Sigauke and has written for O Magazine and Woman & Home (SA) and has been interviewed in South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, Australia and the UK.
Tamara Macfarlane is the owner of the award-winning children’s bookshop Tales on Moon Lane in Herne Hill, south London. She has always had a passion for child literacy and opened Tales on Moon Lane while she was still teaching full-time. She has judged the Costa Children’s Book Award, the UKLA Book Award and the Branford Boase Book Award and has appeared at Bath, Oxford, Just Imagine, Hay and Southwark Libraries Festivals as an author and bookseller. Tamara is the author of the Amazing Esme series and the co-author of the Dylan’s Amazing Dinosaurs series.
Tim Robertson became Director of the Royal Society of Literature in 2015. Founded in 1820 by Royal Charter, the Society is governed by 500 Fellows who are the UK’s most distinguished writers. Previously Tim worked for fourteen years as a social worker and manager of children’s services in the London Borough of Camden, and for nine years as Chief Executive of the Koestler Trust, Britain’s national charity for arts by prisoners. Tim has a BA in English from King’s College London, an MA in American Literature from the State University of New York, and an MSc in Applied Social Studies from Worcester College, Oxford. He served for a decade on the editorial board of Magma poetry magazine.
Tom Palmer is the multi-award winning author of thirty-seven children’s books, including the Football Academy series, the Foul Play series and The Squad published by Puffin Books. Foul Play was shortlisted for the 2009 Blue Peter Book Award; Black Op was awarded the 2013 Solihull Children’s Book of the Year; and Ghost Stadium won the 2014 Leicester Libraries’ Our Best Book Award. Tom’s stories involve spies, detectives, ghosts and war scenarios and are often set in the worlds of football and rugby.
Zanib Mian is the Founder and Director of Sweet Apple Publishers and Muslim Children’s Books and author of twelve picture books which aim to fight prejudice. Sweet Apple’s books have been praised by The Guardian and featured on the BBC’s CBeebies Bedtime Stories. Muslim Children’s Books launched with the release of two books, one of which is in collaboration with the Dawah Project with the support of Islam Channel.
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THE KING’S NAME The king’s name meant ‘pride of men’. Its glyph was a lion with its lip curled, Baring one rounded fang above the family motto, ‘We Conquer By Strength’. A hairy chested rebel who liked Egyptian cotton shirts and Hindi film music, He knew about the proper care of vintage convertibles and collected cufflinks. It was said that there was one like him in all great dynasties: a spoilt son Who squandered every chance given to him and unfailingly delivered failure With a smirk. He had done something terrible during military service in the desert And with that sin on his hands and Vaseline glossing his moustache he came to rule. Creeping in at the palace smelling of stale cologne at dawn on coronation day, He was guided to the throne and slumped there, itching his face and yawning. He carried a heavy mace, wood framed in metal with a rim of uncut rubies The colour of Turkish Delight, promising a thudding violence that was still beautiful, Words hammered into the shaft, a last reminder: Time destroys all worldly gains. Written by whom, nobody knew. Then the chest piece to shield the heart, Embedded with the mysterious flat stone that was part rock, part crystal, Cloudy quartz like a shard of the tail of a shooting star falling for a billion years To pierce the earth. Like the mace it had always been there, in the royal hoard. Then the conical crown with a flat front covered in stretched and beaded silk. © BIDISHA This is an extract from an unpublished poem.
THREE STEPS TO WRITING I like to break writing down into three steps. The first step is HAVING AN IDEA. People often ask me how to get ideas. The truth is that we all have ideas, all the time. Just think of yourself as a reader rather than a writer – and then write the story you would most love to read yourself! That’s how I had the idea of writing Phoenix. I’ve always loved space stories. The stars have always filled me with a sense of wonder. I love the thought of other life; other worlds, out there in the universe… Yet there aren’t many books set in space for younger readers. So I had to sit down and write my own! The second step is WRITING A DRAFT, in which you tell yourself the story you want to read. Do a bit of it every day, until you reach the end. But remember that no-one can write a great book in just one draft. I’ve never met a single writer who could do that; a book is too big and complicated. You need to build it over a number of drafts. The way you do this is the third step: EDITING. Once you’ve written a draft, try to read it as if someone else had written it. Stop being the writer, and become the reader again. And then, as the reader, ask yourself all the questions you ask of every other story you read. What works? What doesn’t? What should there be more of? And less of? Then go back to being the writer, and do everything you can to make it more like the story you want to read. Keep doing this, again and again, until it’s the best version of the story you can possibly write.
To illustrate how much things can change in this process, I’m going to show you an early draft of Phoenix. First of all, for comparison, have a good look at the extract above. It’s the opening of the final, published draft. Once you know it well, have a look at the opening of my early draft:
Can you see how much has changed? It’s gone from first person to third person. From present tense to past. It’s become a dream. The setting has completely changed. The only thing that’s the same is a character gazing up at the stars. That’s the heart of it; but everything around it is different!
That process took me 13 drafts. It was long and hard – but it was worth it, because Phoenix is the book I wanted to read; a book that didn’t exist before I wrote it. And you will feel the same about the stories that you write. So I’d like to wish you all happy writing, and happy reading – because in the end, the key to being a writer is really just being a reader! ©SF SAID
This was first published by Little Star Writing (1 January 2016)
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NEW MOON
Moon is silver sliver. Moon is clipped cup from which to sip a first drop of freshly-pressed moon juice. Moon is somersaulting C in the best moon font. Moon is fickle flickerer. Moon is new lunar lantern to catch a star or two. But mostly moon is shy to meet once more that old old sky. Š KATE WAKELING from Moon Juice (The Emma Press, 2016)
THE TOMATO SALAD was breathtaking. Sometime in the late 1990s the Californian sun ripened a crop of tomatoes to such a pitch you could hear them screaming. Did I mention this was in California? There was corn on the cob. She was English and her heart almost stopped when her aunt served her a bowl of red and yellow tomatoes so spectacular she would never get over them. I can only imagine the perfectly suspended seeds, the things a cut tomato knows about light, or in what fresh voice of sweet and tart those tomatoes spoke when they told my dearest friend, ‘Yosçi yosçi lom boca sá tutty foo twa tamata,’ in the language of all sun-ripened fruits. for Lois Lee © EMILY BERRY from Dear Boy (Faber & Faber, 2013)
TEN TIPS FOR FICTION WRITERS 1. Read Writers read. Reading helps you develop your own style, expand your vocabulary and spark your imagination. 2. Observe Pay attention. Carry a notebook and record sights, sounds, smells, tastes and physical feelings. These can be given to your characters. 3. Write every day Practice! Write stories or letters or keep a journal. Olympians train – so do writers. 4. Know your characters Get to know your characters. Where do they live? Who are their friends? What frightens them? What are their dreams? 5. Create Dare to be different. Let your imagination soar. Spend some time simply capturing your story in print. This is your first draft. 6. Let it rest You are too close to your story to see the weak points. Walk away. Don’t even peek for as long as you can. 7. Read it again You have now gained some distance from your story and will see it with brand new eyes. You might find spelling mistakes or maybe Max, the brown dog becomes Max, the black dog. Keep a pencil handy and make notes. 8. Revise All good writing needs to be rewritten. Read through your notes and make the changes. 9. Repeat Rest and revise as needed. 10. Celebrate! You have written a story. © SHAHIDA RAHMAN
A LONG LOST FRIEND
I’m sorry i don’t know how you like your coffee anymore here’s the caramel I’d forgotten the intensity of your sea green eyes the warmth of your touch for the times you’d drag me off the road when I would listen to you our teeth begin to chatter you move closer I flinch this nearness time stole from me should not be so unfamiliar yet as you reach for my hand I call for the waiter I miss the hurt in your eyes the rainforest in your eyes that smudged my fingertips when I was younger I’m swallowed into their depths I wonder if you remember the fires we lit the settee conversations spilt water and pillow fights the phone call I wonder if you remember the sting of words the pleading that fell on deaf ears until you gutted the answer from me left me gasping taught me the road less travelled is a myth because it makes no difference the struggle to put one foot in front of the other is just as hard the sound of a heart breaking is the same apart from yours I heard it the day the sea green of your eyes didn’t deign to meet mine as I turned and walked away the sound of my heart breaking matched yours two symphonies like the times we’d talked about all these years your absence sat like an empty courtyard in me the waiter arrives with the food I meet your gaze the chocolate pudding pleading reluctantly I kiss the melted chocolate a spoon of darkness so rich so intense so helpless memory fails you there is solace the love in your eyes it was like the last hug the warmth I stole from you I take your hands in mine trace the moonlike scar on your wrist the ice the lasagna your cooking and framed doorways was all I had it was all I had so drunk on bitter evenings and piles of letters I couldn’t take it never will the note I would have left was so close to leaving would have irrevocably shattered you I knew that I know that yet this being you once knew has grown unkempt and no one travels the wild path anymore you pay the bill and you thank the waiter we cling to each other in the cold towards your car my breath hitches I don’t know how to tell you I’ve lost the longing for cruises you turn the heater on I automatically reach for the cd’s in your dashboard then stop muttering an apology the first in a long time your hand in mine © SAFEERAH MUGHAL
A word from Islam Channel
The Young Muslim Writers Awards is an incredible project which promotes achievement and creativity within our children. The primary aim behind the launch of Islam Channel was to represent the Muslim community and give them a voice. Young Muslim Writers Awards share the same mission as us and we are honoured to be part of this project. Our beautiful religion teaches us to acquire knowledge and channel our energies and strive to be the best we can. The Prophet (pbuh) said: “Whoever follows a path in the pursuit of knowledge, Allaah will make a path to Paradise easy for him.” (Narrated by alBukhaari, Kitaab al-‘Ilm, 10) As professionals in Islamic Broadcasting; it is with great honour that we support an event that inspires the advancement of Muslims in the UK. The Young Muslim Writers Awards acknowledges and celebrates young talent, and as a community we need more projects like this that promote the message of positive learning and encourage creativity. The Young Muslim Writers Awards has proven to be a great success over the past few years and we look forward to the further development of this venture. After supporting the Young Muslim Writers Awards for 10 years as Media Partner, we are pleased to join forces once again, and support the achievements and creativity of our future generations.
Mohamed Ali Chief Executive Officer Islam Channel
MESSAGES OF CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations to all this year’s shortlisted writers on speaking up for themselves and for their community. Writing is one of the most important ways in which we understand the world and the world discovers who we are. By sharing your stories, you have shown you are not afraid to let others hear what you have to say. Now we are all listening. Brian Keaney Children’s Author I would like to extend my congratulations to all the young poets who entered this year’s poetry competition. I was impressed with the ingenuity of the poems as well as their honest and insightful approach. Perhaps the biggest bravo of all was the diverse use of poetic techniques and forms of the poems; their use was beyond your years and it is a testament to your talent. It truly warms my heart to know that the future of poetry is in the most capable of hands – your hands. Please continue to write as you write yourself, your culture and your generation into pages of humanity. Caleb Femi London’s Young Poet Laureate To all the children and young people who have entered the Young Muslim Writers Awards. Write with your heart. Then people will listen. With all love and warmest wishes, Caryl Hart Children’s Author
Dear poets, all I can say is shokran/ thank you for you are able to express with poetic clarity emotions I have yearned to share ever since I was your age. Again, shokran for your courage; your talent is bewildering. You have taught me a great lesson. Chirine El Ansary Storyteller and Performer Well done to all the winners and shortlisted writers on the Young Muslim Writers Award 2016. I’m always intrigued and impressed by the variety and standard of the young writers who emerge through this award and I’m really looking forward to reading those who rise to the top in 2016 and hope they will keep writing and entering their work to competitions in the future. Di Speirs Editor, Books - BBC Radio and Music Production, London
Reading is the soulmate of writing. At times when you cannot, for some reason or another, write, take refuge in a book. The sheer act of reading will help you regain confidence and face the reality of writing fiction again. Haifa Zangana Journalist and author of City of Widows, Dreaming of Baghdad, and The Torturer in the Mirror amongst others
Well done, you chosen ones! Isn’t it lovely to be shortlisted for a glittering prize? Let’s hope this is just the first step on a journey that brings you a lifetime of satisfying creativity. Warm wishes and congratulations to the Class of 2016. Ian Whybrow Multi-award winning author of over 100 children’s books including Little Wolf’s Book of Badness and the Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs series Hey you! If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you love to write. Keep writing. I know you have talent. You can grow it. And we want to hear your voice. Jon Walter Author of Close to the Wind (Nominated for the Carnegie Medal) and My Name’s Not Friday (Shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize) Well done! It’s such an achievement to come up with a story and share it with others, thank you for letting us into your world. Keep going, keep writing and keep pushing yourself. Jules Haworth Education Producer, Soho Theatre
Congratulations young writers. Sharing ideas and stories is what makes us human. Each time you send a story out into the world you have given a gift to your readers. Even if you connect with only one person, you have done your job. And your writing will come back to you making friends you may never meet. It will extend who you are and your ideas will grow. Keep writing even when it’s difficult, even when the writing is poor. Keep writing and connecting. A true writer cannot not write! Karen Williams Poet, children’s fiction author, teacher of creative writing in the Masters of Fine Arts Programme at Chatham University and Seton Hill University
Warm congratulations to all the shortlisted writers. I might not know you personally, but if there is one thing I know about you, it is that you enjoy reading. Writers can be hugely different in their personalities, styles and what they write about but the one thing we all have in common is a love of reading. Writing is an extension of reading. The more you read, the better your writing will be. So, keep on enjoying and learning from the books and comics that you read. All you need is a library card. And when you sit down to write, be brave. Don’t be shy to write about your culture and faith. Don’t be shy to write about characters who have the same names as your cousins or eat the same food your mum cooks. Lots of reading and a bit of courage – these are my two pieces of advice. Leila Aboulela Winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing and author of The Translator, Minaret, and The Kindness of Enemies I want to send my congratulations to all who entered YMWA this year and especially the finalists - I was hugely impressed by two things - first, the quality of the writing, and secondly, the willingness of these young people to look at dark and difficult issues and write about them with honesty. I feel the adult world is too often uncomfortable with permitting our younger members of society to ponder the difficult sides to life, and I think that’s patronising and wrong. These entries showed just how vital it is that young adults engage with darker matters and how they can write about them with vitality, too. Marcus Sedgwick Multi-award-winning author of Midwinterblood, Revolver, The Ghosts of Heaven amongst others My warmest congratulations to all the children and young people who took part in the wonderful 2016 Young Muslim Writers Award, and in particular to those who won or were shortlisted. Keep reading, writing and enriching the world with your stories! Miriam Moss Award-winning writer of fiction, short stories, novels and picture books. Her novel, Girl on a Plane, is nominated for the 2017 CILIP Carnegie Medal I would like to congratulate all the young writers who are nominated for the Young Muslim Writers Awards. Whether you win or not, what matters is that you made it there! As they say, “no one is perfect – that’s why pencils have erasers.” Omar Mansoor Fashion designer and first Pakistani to showcase at London Fashion Week
Thank you for showcasing your wonderful stories and rich imaginations. It’s so encouraging to witness the next generation of storytellers at the beginning of their journeys. Patrice Lawrence Short story writer and author of debut novel Orangeboy Congratulations to all the shortlisted young writers in this year’s Young Muslim Writers Awards, and to all those who took part. By entering the competition, you have already shown bravery and passion. Keep on reading, keep on writing, keep on striving for more. Pinky Lilani CBE DL Author, motivational speaker, food guru, Founder and Chairman of Women of the Future Awards, Co-Founder of Asian Women of Achievement Awards, associate fellow of Said Business School, Oxford Writing is a lonely endeavour. It takes patience and perseverance and a lot of practice before you get any good at it. The fact that you’ve been shortlisted is HUGE! It’s a bit of encouragement. It means someone thought you were good enough to be noticed! That’s a first step. Now keep going. Keep honing your craft and eventually inshaAllah, you’ll gain an audience of people who are waiting to read what you have written. Remember that encouragement on the long road ahead, and don’t ever give up trying to improve yourself. Rukhsana Khan Storyteller and children’s author of Silly Chicken, Big Red Lollipop and Wanting Mor Many congratulations to the young writers who were shortlisted and who won their categories! Every single one of you has done amazingly well to get this far. I’m blown away by your passion and talent - it is truly awesome to see such enthusiasm from young writers. Remember it’s not always about winning prizes or competitions – as long as you write for yourself first and foremost your writing will be true to you and the readers will feel this. That’s what counts. I am inspired by every single one of you and wish you all the best in your writing journey! Let us Rattle the Stars. Safeerah Mughal Young Muslim Writers Awards 2015, Short Story & Poetry winner, shortlisted for Asian Women of Achievement Awards 2016 Be patient, persistent and persevere. Believe in your writing and your passion will spread to others. It’s a difficult journey but it will be worth the effort. Shahida Rahman Author of historical novel, Lascar, writer and publisher
I always say to young writers: don’t wait for luck or fate or a gift from Providence. Get busy with your dream. There’s a quote (attributed to Goethe) that I’ve always liked: ‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, make a start. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Start now’. And that’s true. When you work your dream rather than just dream your dream, when you truly commit to it, something magical happens because that commitment releases the creative current. Dorothea Brande put it another way. She said: ‘Act as if it’s impossible to fail’. And that’s also true. Give those two powerful statements a chance. Banish thoughts of failure. And start. Tim Bowler Multi-award winning children’s author of over twenty books and recipient of the Carnegie Medal 1998 for River Boy
Huge Congratulations to the wonderful writers who have taken part in the Young Muslim Writers Awards for 2016 from all at Bloomsbury Children’s Books.
BLOOMSBURY
Emma and Rachel want to say a huge Well Done to all the young writers at the Young Muslim Writers Awards 2016. We can’t wait to read your wonderful poems and stories. THE EMMA PRESS Congratulations to all the wonderful young writers who have been involved in the Young Muslim Writers Awards 2016 from the Faber Children’s team! We hope you will all continue writing so that we could have the opportunity to publish one of your books in the future... FABER & FABER Congratulations to all the brilliant young writers for taking part in this year’s awards, from everyone at Frances Lincoln Children’s Books. We hope you continue to enjoy creating stories as much as we do! FRANCES LINCOLN
The team at Graffeg send warm congratulations to all the talented young writers who took part in the Young Muslim Writers Awards 2016. We are delighted to be part of this wonderful project and encourage you all to keep reading, writing and sharing. GRAFFEG
Hachette UK is delighted to be contributing books to the Young Muslim Writers Awards 2016. We believe passionately in changing the story of publishing and encouraging talent and creativity, as well as in helping to bring diverse voices to the publishing of the future. We hope that the winners of these awards go on to great things, and congratulate them on their wins. HACHETTE UK Kube Publishing would like to congratulate all of the young writers involved in the Young Muslim Writers Awards. We are very proud of you for reaching this stage and we hope you can inspire others with your writing and talents in the future. KUBE
Storytellers have played a special role in societies across the world since the dawn of time. From all of us here at Lantana, we send you our congratulations and our respect for taking on this mantel and carrying it forwards to a new generation. We wish you every success! LANTANA PUBLISHING Congratulations from Little Tiger to everyone that has taken part in the Young Muslim Writers Awards 2016. We are honoured to be part of this project and hope that you keep nourishing your talent, sharing your stories and expressing yourself through your creativity. Well done! LITTLE TIGER GROUP
Sweet Apple Publishers would like to congratulate all the children that have submitted their creative pieces of work to the Young Muslim Writers Awards 2016. We are delighted to be part of this important initiative and hope that you continue to grow as writers! Enjoy your goody bags! SWEET APPLE PUBLISHERS Usborne Publishing would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the shortlisted candidates for the Young Muslim Writers Awards. We want to encourage those who are shortlisted to continue reading and writing, and we hope that you enjoy the books we have contributed to the gift bags.
USBORNE Congratulations on being shortlisted for the Young Muslim Writers Awards. It’s brilliant that young writers are being recognised for their talent, and that we encourage the next generation to inspire and be inspired by the endless possibilities of the written word. Keep writing! WALKER BOOKS
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