The Katara Cultural Village Foundation stated that the number of competitors in the Katara Novel and Fine Art competition had reached 266 in all three categories. The number of submissions in the published book category reached 93, while the number of entries in the unpublished novel category reached 91.
The category of boys' novels had 82 entries as well. Egypt and Sudan had the biggest number of participants with 101, followed by the Levant and Iraq with around 67, and the Arab Maghreb with about 63, followed by the Arab Gulf with 33, with just two non-Arab nations participating.
For the first time in the competition's history, women achieved the highest participation rates in the three categories of the award, with their participation in the category of published novels reaching 55, compared to 38 for males, and their participation in the category of unpublished novels reaching 51, compared to 40 for male participation. The number of female participants in the category of boys' novels reached 47, compared to 35 for males.
The idea behind the competition is to draw paintings for the outer covers of the publications of the eighth session of the Katara Prize for the Novel, which will be printed in Arabic and other foreign languages and distributed during the ninth session of the Katara Festival for the Arabic Novel, which will be held in October, in conjunction with the International Week of Arabic Fiction, which will be held from October 13 to 20.
The competition established a number of technical conditions concerning the size of the painting, as it must be a hand-drawn drawing 19cm long and 16cm wide, and the size of the painting can be enlarged while preserving the ratio of length and width, provided that it is delivered in jpg format without signing inside the painting, and the artist can participate with only one painting, for each work, provided that the painting expresses the content of the novel.
The winner of the most beautiful cover painting for each novel will receive $500 in addition to having the winning painting placed on the cover of the novel and having the name of the artist who owns the painting mentioned in the publication, provided that Katara owns the rights to use the winning painting.
