The Syrian Book Organization launches its annual prizes for best creative works

The Syrian General Organization of Books has recently launched its annual prizes for the best creative literary and artistic works.

The prizes include: Hanna Mina prize for novel writing, Sami al-Droubi prize for translation into Arabic, Omar Abu Risheh prize for poetry as well as the child-oriented story prize and the child-oriented painting prize.The book organization said, that the prizes target Syrian and Arab writers and artists who are resident in Syria.

Application for the competitions will continue till July 30.

The book organization made it clear that  Hanna Mina prize aims at encouraging competition to present the best narrative works and to discover new talents. Winner of the first position will get 500,000 Syrian pounds (SYP), while winner of the second place will get SYP 400,000 and the third winner will be given 300,000 SYP.

The organization added that the Sami al-Droubi Prize is awarded to translated books from English, French or Russian in the domains of literature, art, science and humanitarian knowledge.  First winner gets 500,000 SYP, the second gets 400 SYP, while third gets 300,000 SYP.

Abu Risheh prize for poetry, the organization said, goes to poems written in classical Arabic (Fusha ). Top three winners will get 50,000, 40,000 and 30,000 respectively.

The child-oriented story prize aims at encouraging competition to present best story texts by children writers, that would enhance psychological and social support for Syria’s children. The first three prises are specified as 50,000, 40,000 and 30,000, the organization went on to say.

It pointed out that the child-oriented painting prize also aims at creating competition to present best artistic works and at discovering new talents.

The prizes in this category are specified as follows: 150,000 for the first place, 125,000 for the second place and 100,000 for the third place.

Hamda Mustafa