‘I Love Sharjah’ discovers gifted writers
SHARJAH: Meet Abdelrahman Tamer and Ayana Thariq Sheikh: two young writers who are about to embark on a brand new exciting chapter in their own lives, as they have just been crowned winners of the Yarboa Adventures Story competition.
Organised by the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority’s (Shurooq) leisure and promotion arm, ‘I Love Sharjah’ and run in parallel with this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, that ran until November 10, the competition challenged young writers to pen a story between 200 and 2,000 words that focused on Sharjah and included the popular ‘I Love Sharjah’ mascot, Yarboa.
Abdelrahman’s story, called “Yarboa in Bait Al Nabooda” details UAE customs and traditions, educating the readers about the history of Bait Al Naboodah and its surrounding areas, while Ayana’s “Yarboa’s Wonderland” tells the tale of a ‘magical dream’ where her friend Yarboa takes her on a journey to discover the city’s wonderful secrets and relect on all the beauty that Sharjah has to offer.
Adhering to strict criteria that called for all stories to be original and have a beginning, body and ending, eight-year-old Abdelrahman from Al Ansar International School, Sharjah, and seven-year-old Ayana from Habitat School, Ajman, both impressed the judges with their creative and fun tales, and were able to shine among 169 unique entries to reach the top spot, in which Abdelrahman won in the Arabic category and Ayana won in the English category of the competition.
Abdelrahmanandayanawerecrowned winners by a panel of judges from Kalimat Publishing. Their stories will be published in the Yarboa book series and feature on the ‘I love Sharjah’ website. They also each received Dhs5,000 in prize money.
Evaluation was based on a ten-point scale, with scores of between one and eight being awarded for content, presentation, structure, characters and dialogue, theme, style and tone, and commercial potential.