Poetry Contest at the IWA

The Islamic Writers Alliance (IWA) is currently holding its seventh annual Islamic poetry contest. The deadline for submitting poems is April 30, 2011, and guidelines are available here. There are three categories for submissions:

• IWA members
• Adults 18 and over who are not members of the IWA
• Youth under 18 who are not members of the IWA

Although there is no mention of a prize on the IWA website, a cash prize is usually awarded to the winner in each category. Write to the IWA for confirmation.

Writers/Bloggers Needed at MuslimYouth.net

MuslimYouth.net is seeking writers to write articles, blog entries and poems for its website. Writers should be at least 15 years old.

More details here.

Contribute to an Anthology of Writing by Young Arab Americans

Professor Pauline Kaldas of Hollins University is in the process of putting together an anthology of writing by young Arab Americans (up to age 18). 

According to this announcement:

Poetry, personal essays, and creative nonfiction will be considered for publication.  The focus of the anthology will be on issues relating to Arab American identity and the experience of young Arab Americans in the United States.

Deadline for submissions: December 1, 2010

If interested in contributing to this anthology, continue reading here.

Islamic Fiction Contest at the IWA

The Islamic Writers Alliance (IWA) is holding its 2nd annual Islamic Fiction Contest. The competition is open to three categories of participants:

• IWA Members
• Adults – authors 18 and over who are not members of IWA
• Youth – authors between the ages of 13 and 17

According to the IWA website:

Entries may be of any genre, including but not limited to: adventure, comic, crime, detective, fantasy, family historical fiction, mystery, romance, thriller, western

Stories submitted to the competition must be received by November 10, 2010. Winning authors will be awarded cash prizes (typically $50 per winning entry but not yet confirmed for this year).

Complete guidelines are available here.

Muslim Manga Contest

Do you like manga? Are you a talented artist? If so, you might enjoy participating in this Muslim Manga contest. The idea of this contest is to take an existing anime and incorporate Muslim characters/themes into it. 

Basic instructions are as follows:

Your Manga (comic) will have to be a side story to an anime (any anime you want, as long as it is appropriate). What that means is you make your own story and have the anime's Characters in it. The thing is you have to make it Islamic. I have a couple examples that you can use if you want to, but it should give you an idea of what the contest is about. One, you can make a story where the characters are all Muslim and you show their day to day life in an Islamic environment with Islamic attitude and behaviors. Two, you can make a story, where one character has become Muslim and he is telling the other characters of the anime about Islam and how great and peaceful it is, and ultimately at the end of the story, those characters the Muslim character is talking to will become Muslim too.

Those are two examples to get you started, but you can do your own story, but ultimately, there has to be at least one or two characters who have become Muslim in the story. So be creative! Also, please only use one series. Do not combine characters from multiple animes into one story.

Keep reading for more information.

Deadline: November 30, 2010

Welcome to the Blog!

As-salamu Alaykum, and thank you for visiting this blog. I have been maintaining another writing blog (Resources for Muslim Writers) for more than two years now. During this time, I have realized that there is a need for a similar blog to meet the unique needs of younger Muslim writers. So, if you are in the "teen or younger" category, I hope you will find special benefit in the various resources you find here. My intention is to answer questions about writing, post markets for your work, and generally discuss the various issues one might encounter as a Muslim writer.

Feel free to make suggestions on the content of this blog and to participate in the discussions.