Rowayat runs fiction competitions across a range of participating categories, including school and university students, specialized children’s competitions for the under-14 age groups, as well as other thematic categories. We are proud to give younger writers the opportunity to publish their work and share it with the world.
Below is a list of our competition winners to date.
Fifth competition winner – university category :
LAUNCH STARTING April 11th – EVERY WEEK TILL May 2nd Word is faith. A word after a word after a word is how we come face to face with our fallibilities, and our power. It is what we do to…
It wasn’t a room. It was a never-ending corridor, with a black wall on one side and a glass wall on the other. Asher didn’t like facing the glass any more. It had been easier when all this started, but…
Fifth competition winner – school category :
LAUNCH STARTING April 11th – EVERY WEEK TILL May 2nd Word is faith. A word after a word after a word is how we come face to face with our fallibilities, and our power. It is what we do to…
12 am: all birds were asleep, but her eyes were still wide open. The wind blew through the cracks of the glass in the shanty, filling its emptiness with swirling dust. Hagar, in an effort to escape the cold spreading…
Fourth competition winner – university category :
LAUNCH STARTING April 11th – EVERY WEEK TILL May 2nd Word is faith. A word after a word after a word is how we come face to face with our fallibilities, and our power. It is what we do to…
Every day I try not to drown. Every day I try to breathe. Every day I try to get out of bed and go on. Everything is a tainted gray. Sometimes the gray is a very dark shade, and sometimes…
Fourth competition winner – school category :
LAUNCH STARTING April 11th – EVERY WEEK TILL May 2nd Word is faith. A word after a word after a word is how we come face to face with our fallibilities, and our power. It is what we do to…
It had been a few years since the Darkness started showing itself and taking over our lands. People were stealing, swearing, fighting, and all these things had never existed before. Most people were living in great poverty and would do…
Fourth competition winner – Unsold Stories :
LAUNCH STARTING April 11th – EVERY WEEK TILL May 2nd Word is faith. A word after a word after a word is how we come face to face with our fallibilities, and our power. It is what we do to…
She has always been slow to move, languidly flipping and splashing in her warm pool. Today, she’s given me a few quiet indications of her presence, but nothing definitive. Busy with my students, I push any worry into the back…
Third competition winners – Our Young Writers (Under-10s):
LAUNCH STARTING April 11th – EVERY WEEK TILL May 2nd Word is faith. A word after a word after a word is how we come face to face with our fallibilities, and our power. It is what we do to…
There was a teenage girl named Elsa who lived in a treehouse. A friend always came to visit her. She was a princess: Princess Sophia. Elsa was born on an island with her mom and dad, but one day, they…
Third competition winner – Our Young Writers (Under-12s):
LAUNCH STARTING April 11th – EVERY WEEK TILL May 2nd Word is faith. A word after a word after a word is how we come face to face with our fallibilities, and our power. It is what we do to…
Once upon a time, Aladdin was invited to a wedding in another country, but his wife, Princess Jasmine, was tired so she couldn’t go with him. Aladdin went with his monkey and his parrot on the flying carpet. When he…
Third competition winner – Our Young Writers (Under-14s):
LAUNCH STARTING April 11th – EVERY WEEK TILL May 2nd Word is faith. A word after a word after a word is how we come face to face with our fallibilities, and our power. It is what we do to…
It was a hot, crowded, blissful day on the beaches of Alexandria. Families and friends enjoyed the cold and salty waves of the Mediterranean and built their sand castles of golden sand. But for young Alice, it was just another…
Second competition winner – university category :
LAUNCH STARTING April 11th – EVERY WEEK TILL May 2nd Word is faith. A word after a word after a word is how we come face to face with our fallibilities, and our power. It is what we do to…
Ali always tried avoiding work whenever possible. He despised waking up early, putting on work clothes, spending hours in the fields, and returning hungry at night. You see, Ali lived with his family on a large date farm, at least…
Second competition winner – school category :
LAUNCH STARTING April 11th – EVERY WEEK TILL May 2nd Word is faith. A word after a word after a word is how we come face to face with our fallibilities, and our power. It is what we do to…
My father once told me when I was young, that he could judge a man on three things: his hat, his shoes, and his walk. The first two, he said, were simple. If a gentleman walked in with a Stetson…
First competition winner :
LAUNCH STARTING April 11th – EVERY WEEK TILL May 2nd Word is faith. A word after a word after a word is how we come face to face with our fallibilities, and our power. It is what we do to…
Title inspired by W. H. Auden’s 1938 poem. “Home is where one starts from. As we grow older The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated Of dead and living. Not the intense moment Isolated, with no before and after,…
Runner-Ups
Fifth competition:
University category:
First runner-up: Mahmoud Oraby for his poem 32 blue and others
Second runner-up: Yosra Hamouda for her poem The Picture and others
Third runner-up: Dina Hekal for her short story Lost Times
School category:
First runner-up: Aliaa Tarek Kamal for her short story Ain’t them bodies saints?
Second runner-up: Norhan Khaled for her poetry Comparing Deaths and others
Third runner-up: Salma Ezzat for her short story Precious
Fourth competition:
Unsold Stories category:
First runner-up: Kay Merkel Boruf for Yerba
Second runner-up: Kehkashan Khalid for The Man Who Could Not Change the World
Third runner-up: Chris Iovenko for Selling
Fourth runner-up: Lamia Ayman Salah for Three Euros and Fifty Cents
Third competition:
8-10 age category:
First runner-up: Vittoria Fumelli for Pinnocchio The Rock
Second runner-up: Emmett Leo for Jack and the Pyramid
Third runner-up: Maya Dallal for Rapunzel
10-12 age category:
First runner-up: Emma Lacchini for Tom and Jerry’s Dangerous Christmas
Second runner-up: Rania Baelz for Cinderella Reloaded
Third runner-up: Noran Angeel for Let it Go By
12-14 age category:
First runner-up: Norhan Khaled Mohamed for The Past Explained
Second runner-up: Zeina Hani for Mirror Mirror
Third runner-up: Youmna Waleed Faisal for My Life
Second competition:
University category:
First runner-up: Lina Emad Elkordy for Among the Wreckage
Second runner-up: Yasmin Radwan for Nail Polish
Third runner-up: Yasmin Abu Halawa for Home
Fourth runner-up: Yossra Hamouda for The Camera, The Chorus, and The Chair
School category:
First runner-up: Hoda ElSayed for Little Numbers
Second runner-up: Miriam Elbayady for The Ostrich
Third runner-up: Mohamed Moataz for Way to the Everlasting Home
Fourth runner-up: Jamilla Soliman for her poetry
First competition:
Shot story category:
First runner-up: Ali Ahmed for his story Under the Desert Sun
Second runner-up: Aya Zain for her story A Bus Ride
Third runner-up: Mohamed Hedar for his story A Dove Who Flies Above
Fourth runner-up: Baher Ibrahim for his story A Chance
Poetry category:
First runner-up: Sherif Khairy for Hail the King and other poems
Second runner-up: Mariam Elsherbini for Burnt Roses
Third runner-up: Hoda Elsayed for Societal Damages and other poems
Fourth runner-up: Malaka El-Gammal for Remembering
