Calling all writers!  the Abu Dhabi Book Fair and The National Short Story Competition is back!

The Theme that must be used for the 2013 short story competition should be “Gone” or be titled The Puppet Master.

Some basic rules:

• The entries must have a word count no less than 1,500 words and no more than 2,000
• Any genre is welcome, as long as those conditions are
  met.
• All content submitted must be original and
  unpublished
• Must be written in English
• Target Audience for short story: Adults
• Authors must be 18 years old and above
• Authors cannot be related to anyone working at Abu Dhabi Media or at the Abu Dhabi Book Fair.
• Submission must be sent as a readable text document

The deadline to submit the short stories is on the 16th of April 2013 – at midnight at the latest

Get writing everyone!

Stories must be emailed to artslife@thenational.ae to be able to enter into the competition

The Judging

The first round of entries will be judged by an in-house panel of editors employed by The National. Five to 10 shortlisted works will be chosen and forwarded to the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair judging panel, featuring the short story writers Abdelaziz Al Rachedi and Micheline Habib. They will pick the winning author and determine who is in second place, as well as who the three runner-ups will be – so, in total, five short stories will be recognized.

The prizes:

• The first-prize: iPad 3 + the followingThe first place entry will be published in The National’s Arts&Life section on April 29 – all top five entries will be posted online on The National’s website – and on that same day, the winners will be invited to take part in a “sofa discussion” at the book fair, granting them an opportunity to meet the judges, hear about what goes into writing a short story and receive pointers from published authors.
• The 2nd place prize: iPad mini
• 3rd, 4th & 5th: iPod Nano

Good luck everyone!

Follow the Abu Dhabi Book Fair’s Twitter account here

Abu Dhabi Book Fair’s website here

– Untitled Chapters Team

Reference: The National Article UAE writers, sharpen your literary skills for the Abu
Dhabi International Book Fair and The National’s short story competition