Short-listed Finalists

Fakhura Nissa, a science teacher from Birmingham, was in attendance with two of her daughters, one of whom, Rumaysa Ahmad, was short-listed.

“I’m absolutely proud of her. It’s the first time we have come here from Birmingham. It’s absolutely amazing, truly inspirational. I think I’m going to start reading again.”

Sharing her experience, Rumaysa said, “It was very motivating for me because I don’t really read much, so I was happy to be a part of this. What motivates me to write are the things that I see around me.”

Fakhura added, “I think events like this help people to come together and appreciate what is going on around the world. I know, for me personally, you need to come with these people, experience it with them. It has certainly inspired me to go into the community and help out more.”

One of the finalists, Amina Mohamed, spoke about her entry. “My story is about historical figures and nonfiction figures. It’s about a mirror that is passed down to these historical figures and there’s something weird about it. It’s kind of comical as well.” 

Her sister Jamilah added, “Of course I’m proud of her, a win for her is a win for me. Even though she’s younger than me, she inspires me to write like her. We discuss a lot of books, we go to the library together. That this is a Muslim writers’ award, it inspires us to represent the community in a better way and to write more about, not just things to do with Muslim life, but our perception of the world.”

Excitement

Shaheena Khan, mother of Hannah Hussain said, “I’ve always had a love of English and books. I’m incredibly proud to be here. It’s our first event of this kind, and yes, really excited. And in my eyes, Hannah is already a winner, so I’m really proud to be here.”

Talking about her story, Hannah said, “I wrote a story called Crisis of faith. It’s about a girl who wants to be in the Olympics but after an accident, her dreams are crushed. But then she takes a leap of faith and becomes really successful. If life gets you down, you just get up again and keep going.”

Amna Ahmed, another mother of a short-listed child, Asma Hussain shared that “Asma loves reading and writing, and we’re really proud of her. She came up with the idea of the story herself which she based on a recent trip to Pakistan where she visited an orphanage, and that inspired her to write about The Girl Who Grew Up Too Quickly. 

“We do have writers in our family. My father actually is very much into Urdu literature and was a journalist in his time. I myself write poetry from time to time. And Asma’s older sister was short-listed about ten years ago. So we have a love of writing in our house.”

Writer of The Year 2018

Last year’s winner Sabir Hussain Miah talked about his trip.

“We went to Pakistan to visit some schools and to visit some Muslim Hands projects over there. And it was a really amazing experience,” he said.

“I got to like see all these children from completely different backgrounds to me, talk to them, to understand where they came from and how that influenced what they were doing. It was a good week-long trip during my half-term holidays.”