Recently updated on October 24th, 2022 at 02:38 pm
Winners have emerged in the Barjeel Art Foundation Inaugural Poetry Prize.
The organisers, in a statement, said:
“We are delighted to announce the six winners and six runners-up of the first-ever Barjeel Poetry Prize, judged blindly by world-renowned poets. The poetry prize, which drew entries from more than 500 poets around the world, asked writers to respond to one of twenty works of art that form part of the Barjeel collection.
The three adult winners for 2020 are: Islam Abdul Shahid Hanish (Arabic), Emily Khilfeh (English, Arab Heritage), and Charlotte Eichler (English, International).
The three youth category winners are: Batool Abu Akleen (Arabic), Nour Salama (English, Arab Heritage), and Olajuwon-Alhaytham Abdullah Adedokun (English, International). There were also six runners-up.
The awards are sponsored by the Barjeel Art Foundation, an independent arts organization based in the United Arab Emirates, and they will be presented at a virtual awards ceremony in early 2021, with a recording available following the event.
The first-ever Barjeel Poetry Prize list of winners is incredibly diverse, with writers from around the world crafting works in a wide variety of styles. The winners and runners-up live in Nigeria, Lebanon, the US, Russia, the UK, Egypt, Palestine, and the UAE, with further origins in Pakistan, Syria, Palestine, and beyond. The youngest winner is 15-year-old Batool Abu Akleen, a student in Gaza.
In addition to a monetary prize of $500 for winners and $250 for runners-up, poems will be published in the Beirut-based journal Rusted Radishes in the first week of January and will be displayed at Barjeel alongside the paintings.”
The winning poem by Nigerian poet Olajuwon-Alhaytham Abdullah Adedokun is “Finding Home in Loneliness”, which responds to “Cactus with City in the Background” by Asim Abu Shakra.
Judge Raymond Antrobus said of the winning poem:
“The fastest way to set yourself on fire / is by lighting your home” begins of this striking poem “Finding Home In Loneliness”. A great first line on its own, but the enjambment is impressive and does a lot of work. To break on “fire” and “home”, raised such a high bar for this poem that I wondered if it would sustain its quality. It does. The word “home” appears five times, but this feels intentional, as does the uneven stanzas and line lengths, which work to unfold the images and evoke longing, wandering and loneliness.
Also the speed and rhythm of the lines become a kind of spreading fire, it roars and then simmers by the end where we are left with the feeling of the speaker, despite stating to have found “a home away from home”, the sadness and pain for the “home” that has been left continues to burn.
This is serious poetry talent and this poet must keep writing!”
