Unsold Stories Writing Competition

Encouraging the Voice of Underground Artists

Indeed art can be a reflection of the society, and a sort of documentation for the evolution or degeneration of the human mind over centuries.

For a very long time there was a concept named “Capitalism in Art” that has been dominating the art industry. The concept reveals how art is based on the demand of the audience, thus it is surely directly related to profit. Many artists chose to go with the flow, and follow the current dominating trend or “fashion” of art and produce what the audience demands, and many others chose to create their own art.

Underground Artists have proven the powerful magnitude of their new ideas. Audience surrounding them and following them were further proof that the “market” demands new ideas, new trends, and art-lovers demand evolution rather than stability.

Sherine Elbanhawy the CEO of Rowayat Publishing and Mahmoud Mansi the CEO of The Forgotten Writers Foundation collaborated together to create the “Unsold Stories” writing competition. Both organizations launch their own writing competitions but the message behind their collaboration is that people and even companies with the same cause should cooperate instead of compete.

The idea of the competition is to write a short story (fiction or non-fiction) ranging from 1500 to 5000 words about an artist who tends to be concerned about making a difference, delivering a new message, expressing new feelings, and inspiring people, rather than one who is concerned about making profit and fame. Moreover, this competition is not merely created for writers. On the contrary, it is done to encourage different individuals in the world of art to experience the power and glamor of writing.

Rowayat offers the 1st winner EGP 2500 monetary prize and his/her winning story will be published in the third issue of Rowayat, published on Jan 25th 2015. The 4 runner-ups will be published online on the Rowayat website.

Have you ever thought which is more beautiful, the artwork or the artist? And who shall be the true artistic reader, the one who contemplates the output or the source? This competition and the production of the winning stories will surely give a hint about that.

1st Panel Jury Members: Keith Borg (Malta), Elizabeth Mastrangelo (USA), Gintare Laurinaviciute (Lithuania), and Mahmoud Mansi (Egypt).

Detailed Guidelines: http://www.rowayat.com/competition/