Young poets honoured at Emirates Airline Festival of Literature and Taaleem Poetry Award

DUBAI, 8 March 2014: The country’s best young poets were honoured at a grand prize-giving ceremony for the Taaleem Poetry Award, now in its third year. The competition is held as part of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature and sponsored by leading education group Taaleem.

The theme for 2014’s competition was ‘Metamorphosis’ and the submissions in Arabic and English showcased how the students had embraced and transformed the theme. Winners were presented with certificates, signed books and tickets to creative writing workshops at the Festival. The winning entries were published in a dual-language book that was also presented to winners, the artwork for which was adapted by local artist Mohammed Al Quasab.

Judges Frank Dullaghan and Joan Scott-Minter commented on the high quality of the winning entries with Dullaghan adding, “There is no limit to the imagination of children and this is never clearer than when they write poetry. I have judged poetry competitions for a few years now and have always been amazed at the beauty of the language children use to express themselves and the ideas they convey in their poems. There is so much talent in the UAE and I am certain that the young winners today will soon be making waves in poetry.”

The award was presented to the winning students by UK poet Lemn Sissay, who was the first poet commissioned for the 2012 London Olympics, Rosamund Marshall, CEO, Taaleem and Isobel Abulhoul, Festival Director, Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.

Rosamund Marshall said of the competition: “There is undoubtedly a huge wealth of poetic talent in the UAE and Taaleem is delighted to play a part in discovering that talent. We have had such encouraging results with the Taaleem Poetry Award and it has become clear that poetry is far from a dying art – it is flourishing amongst students in the Emirates. We are very excited to see what is in store next year!”

The winners - English language:
11 & Under
Venika Vachani
Órla-Méabh Youell
Ferre Van Roy 12 to 14 Age Group
Ahlam Irshad Shaikh
Archie Walker
Muntaha Sabri 
15 to 17
Jumana Al-Basuni
Shaday Chantall Collie
Karishma P. Gandhi
Sruthi Veeraraghavan 18+ Age Group
Shravan Chopra
Tom Taylor
Madhuri Kumar
Rishav Dash

The winners - Arabic language:
11 & Under
Haya Sami Fahad Al Hammadi
Fahad Sami Fahad Al Hammadi 12 to 14 Age Group
Fatma Sami Fahad Al Hammadi
Mohamad Saed Alfalasi
Jasim Akran
15 to 17
Eman Jehad Abuzaid
Sara Tamimi
Mariam Mohammed Al Zaini 18+ Age Group
Salma Elgaili Abdelkarim Ahmed
Mohammed Kazem Aboudan