Book Award Competition for Young Writers in Mogadishu

Culture and Heritage

The Somali Academy of Sciences and Arts (SOMASA) partner of the ArtXchange project, organized a Book Award Competition for young writers, where they and former participants of ArtXchange Creative Writing and Digital Storytelling workshops got to network and showcase their work to the public. 

The event was opened by the Chairman of SOMASA, Mr. Abdulkadir Nor Hussein Maah, and attended by the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education of Somalia, Ms. Nuria Adan Isse, scholars, officials from the National Library, National Museum, and National Theater, as well as youth, writing clubs and university students. 

Shamso is a young upcoming Somali author who entered the Young Writers' competition. She went through the process of submitting her book to an evaluation committee of accomplished writers, Somali language experts and linguists, as well as a selected group of young creative writers. They read, reviewed and presented their literary critique of Shamso's submission di lei di lei to the evaluation panel and thereafter awarded her di lei.  

“I am really excited to be a part of this book competition. It has been going on for a whole month and today we are celebrating the evaluations with 30 other young writers. I'm really proud to be the only girl to have won the top awards. My book is called Hiil Agoon (in Support of an Orphan). I am an orphan and I never met my father. This book is about the feelings and desires of an orphan child. It is my biographical viewpoint, ”shared Shamso. 

The Book Award Competition for Young Writers is an annual cultural event organized by SOMASA and this year was supported by the EU funded ArtXchange  project. 23 contestants participated in this year's award and 6 winners were  selected and presented.

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