Our annual competition in honor of

Naomi Shihab Nye

Annoucing the 2025 Competition for a

Children’s Book Manuscript

The Naomi Shihab Nye Prize was established in 2024 for writers in our Arab community to create book length stories for and about young Arab readers. 

We invite Arab American and Arab Canadian writers to submit an English-language middle-grade manuscripts directed to readers ages 8–12.

This competition, initiated by Barbara Nimri Aziz, serves to foster new talent and encourage all writers, emerging and established, to celebrate the richness of Arab creativity and our storytelling tradition. First prize: $1,000; second: $500.

Naomi Shihab Nye is a Palestinian-American author, editor, and educator celebrated for her pioneering work in children’s literature. She has been the U.S. Young People’s Poet Laureate, a poetry editor for major publications, and a recipient of multiple Lifetime Achievement Awards. Her books include Habibi, Sitti’s Secrets, 19 Varieties of Gazelle, The Turtle of Oman, and The Turtle of Michigan, among many others. Her work bridges cultures and voices, making her a powerful advocate for the arts and Arab heritage. 

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SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR THE 2025 CYCLE

Eligibility & Guidelines

  • Arab Canadian or Arab American writers

  • Manuscripts may be in any genre

  • 200 pages maximum

  • Manuscripts only accepted online in .pdf format

  • March 1st, 2025 submission opens

  • June 19, competition closes

  • $25 submission fee

  • Submissions must be unpublished works

Details from Women against the Night by Helen Zughaib

Meet Our 2025 Winners

Salam Zahr, First Place: The Serious Life of Talia Khalil

Manuscript Details

  • Please use pseudonyms for any references to your identity.

  • 12-font and 1.15 spacing.

  • Entrant’s name must not appear anywhere on manuscript.

  • Include page number at top right of each page, and on submission form, your book title page and page count

  • Winning manuscripts announced in September 2025.


Producers

Barbara Nimri Aziz founded RAWI in 1992. “Radio Tahrir”, Aziz’s 24-year, weekly broadcast on WBAI-Radio, NY, featured numerous Arab authors. The entire audio archive is accessible free, from anywhere, at Bentley Historical Library U. Michigan.

Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture is a Philadelphia-based non-profit that offers artistic and educational programming that enriches understanding and celebrates diversity, while supporting the pursuit and affirmation of Arab American cultural identity.

Lisa Volta-Zalloum, Executive Director of Al-Bustan.

Rym Tina Hickey, Second Place: Haunted

Danny Ramadan is a Syrian-Canadian author and LGBTQ+ refugees advocate. He is the author of Crooked Teeth, The Foghorn Echoes, The Clothesline Swing, and the award-winning Salma children’s series. His work has won the Lambda Literary Award, the Publishing Triangle Award, the Independent Publisher Book Award, and was longlisted for Canada Reads. His books are translated into multiple languages and celebrated worldwide. Since arriving in Canada, he has raised over $300,000 to support queer and trans refugees. When not writing, he’s usually playing video games with fierce commitment and questionable skill.

Hayan Charara is a poet, novelist, children’s book author, essayist, and editor. 

Born in Detroit in 1972 to Arab immigrants, he studied biology and chemistry at Wayne State University before turning to poetry. He spent a decade in New York City, where he earned a master’s degree from New York University’s Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program. In 2004, he moved to Texas, where he eventually earned his PhD in literature and creative writing at the University of Houston. 

He has taught at a number of colleges and universities, including Queens College, Jersey City University, the City University of New York-La Guardia, the University of Texas at Austin, Trinity University, and Our Lady of the Lake University. He is a professor in the Honors College and a creative writing faculty member at the University of Houston.

Previous Winners

2025

First Place: Alia Yunis, Making Miracles in Minesota

Second Place: Pauline Kaldas, A Place So Far Away

Our 2025 Esteemed Judges

Telling Me His Stories by Helen Zughaib, 15 x 20", gouache on board, 2015