All you want to know about the 8th contest’s prize and grand prize winners – PLUS Runners up BioS

NOVEL Published

The Body In Zeller’s Barn – Arian Harandi

USA

The Body In Zeller’s Barn – Arian Harandi

USA

Arian Harandi was born in Iran and moved to Southern California at the age of nine. He earned his BFA in Film Production from Chapman University and briefly ventured into the indie film world before realizing that writing books is far cheaper and requires significantly fewer people. The Body in Zeller’s Barn is his debut novel — the product of year(s) spent writing every day, talking to himself in empty rooms, and trying to strike the right balance between darkness and wit. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and doggy.

RUNNER UP /More Lies – Richard James Allen / USA

Richard James Allen is an Australian poet, filmmaker and performer, based in Sydney on unceded Gadigal lands. A First-Class Honours graduate from Sydney University, he won the Chancellor’s Award for best doctoral thesis at the University of Technology, Sydney. A founder and co-artistic director with Karen Pearlman of the multi-award-winning Physical TV Company, his work has been screened, broadcast, published and presented on six continents. Richard’s thirteenth book, Text Messages from the Universe (Flying Island Books, 2023), was a finalist for three international awards. A film adaptation won six awards and was nominated for Best Narrative Feature Film at the ATOM Awards. In an earlier incarnation, his novel, More Lies (Interactive Publications), was shortlisted for the Griffin Award for New Australian Playwriting. An audiobook version had its world premiere at the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, before releasing globally on Spotify, Audible, and other platforms, in 2025.

NOVEL Unpublished

Kingdom of Slaves – Mahboobeh Zare

Iran

Mahboobeh Zare is an Iranian writer, poet, and literary mentor with a PhD in Comparative Interpretation. Over the past decades, she has authored more than sixty four published books in Persian literature, spanning fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her work reflects a deep commitment to exploring the human condition through social themes, while also embracing the timeless subject of love, which has become a central focus in her recent writing.

At forty six, Mahboobeh balances her prolific literary career with her role as a mother to a teenage daughter, drawing inspiration from both family life and the broader cultural landscape of her country. She views her mission in life as being a small reflection of divine kindness, striving to bring compassion and love into the lives of her readers. Her short stories and novels often highlight social realities, weaving together philosophical insight with emotional resonance. As a mentor, she has guided aspiring writers and poets, encouraging them to find their authentic voices and contribute meaningfully to literature.

Mahboobeh’s vision is to create works that not only entertain but also inspire empathy, hope, and a deeper understanding of humanity. Through her writing, she seeks to connect hearts across generations and cultures.

SHORT STORY Published

Beneath a Darkening Sky, Judith Crow

Scotland

Judith was born in Orkney, grew up in Lincolnshire and now lives in the far north of Scotland. Her work draws inspiration from folklore, experience and the natural world. The Backwater, Judith’s debut book, was a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and her YA novel Honour’s Rest was listed as a «top book for teens» in The Scotsman. Honour’s Rest and The Folly at Raighvan Park (a Gothic Horror novella) were also finalists in the Eyelands Book Prize.

When she isn’t writing, Judith loves her work as an English teacher. She sometimes finds that writing gets usurped by crafting, music, and being a generally doting spaniel owner.

RUNNER UP /A Fine Madness and Other Mad Stories, Jeffrey M. Feingold / USA

Jeffrey M. Feingold’s stories have been published widely in literary journals, including Pithead Chapel, The Pinch, and Maudlin House. His work has been nominated for the PEN America Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, the Pushcart Prize, and the Best American Short Stories. His first short story collection, The Black Hole Pastrami, won multiple book awards, including the National Indie Excellence Award. This was followed in the same year with his second collection, There Is No Death in Finding Nemo, which received numerous awards. Jeffrey’s third collection, A Fine Madness, was published in late 2024. Jeffrey resides with family in Boston, Massachusetts.

SHORT STORY  Unpublished

The Noisy Quietude of Mikhail Gorky and Other Stories, Ken Pisani

USA

Ken Pisani is an Emmy-nominated producer and screenwriter, novelist, playwright, and comic book creator. (Ken needs to learn how to focus.) His Los Angeles Times best-selling debut novel “AMP’D,» published by St. Martin’s Press, was runner-up for the Thurber Prize for American Humor and optioned for television. “AMP’D” also won the Grand Prize at the 2022 Eyelands Book Awards. Ken is also the writer-creator of the Geekie Award-winning sci-fi graphic novel “COLONUS,» published by Dark Horse Comics, and the quirky murder mystery novella «4 Corners,» also optioned for TV. Ken’s short fiction was recently shortlisted for the HG Wells Prize, and he’s contributed to The Saturday Evening Post, The Louisville Review, Salon, Publishers Weekly, Huffington Post, Literary Hub, Carve, American Writers Review, and elsewhere, as well as the anthology «More Tonto Short Stories,» published in the U.S. and U.K.  Ken recently completed a new novel, «Days Are Here Again,» and is working on a variety of film and TV projects and a collection of short stories. kenpisani.com

RUNNER UP/The Man without a Shadow, Gjore Gjelev

Gjore Gjelev is a contemporary writer from N. Macedonia, known for his lyrical verses, subtle prose, and his ability to weave stories of everyday people and their emotional landscapes with broader existential themes. Born in Veles, he now lives and works in Skopje. He holds a degree in system software engineering and works professionally in that field.

Gjelev established himself through poetry and short prose. He has published three poetry collections “Lyrical from Shakespearean Street,” “The Weight of the Second Step,” and “Love Notebook”, all distinguished by their emotional clarity, sensitivity, and modern poetic expression. His short story collection, “The Man Without a Shadow,” further showcases his capabilities for crafting intimate, psychologically nuanced narratives.

Beyond writing, Gjelev is also active in the visual arts. He practices Chinese calligraphy and has held a solo exhibition in Veles, presenting 30 works in various scripts that highlight the breadth of his creative expression.

LGBTQ

 Swimming in words – Luke Icarus Simon

Australia

Luke Icarus Simon was born in Nicosia and immigrated to Australia as a teenager. He has a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in Literature and Drama from Sydney University and completed postgraduate degrees at the University of Technology and Wollongong University.

For 30 years he worked as an actor, screenwriter, playwright and as a principal and CEO in the tertiary and vocational educational sectors.

His acclaimed plays include Fish Wednesday (Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney, Critics’ Choice- Sydney Morning Herald) and A Little House On An Island In The Aegean (La Mama Theatre, Melbourne, “Simon is a defiant and captivating performer”-Stage Whispers).He created, starred, produced and directed the film My Stamp Collection that was broadcast on ABC-TV.

Over the past five decades his short stories, poems, reviews and essays have been published extensively in literary journals, magazines and anthologies in Australia, United States, Greece and Canada.  He is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently, Swimming In Words, a short story collection and a novel, The Art In My Palm (Quarter-Finalist in the Publishers Weekly 2025 BookLife Prize). Simon is a Stage 4 cancer survivor. 

He currently lives in a small New South Wales town along the Murray River.

POETRY Published

Eject city – Jason Morphew

USA

Jason Morphew started life in a mobile home in Pike County, Arkansas. His writing has appeared in The Daily Beast, Los Angeles Review of Books, Bellevue Literary Review, and other places. Reviewing his full-length debut dead boy, The Washington Post writes, «Morphew’s edginess and sharp intelligence make the poem pop.» A promotional video for his second full-length poetry collection, Eject City, can be found here:

RUNNER UP /Just give me the pills, Koraly Dimitriadis / Australia

Koraly Dimitriadis  is an award-winning, best-selling poet, writer and actor who creates poetic film/theatre. She was born in Australia to Cypriot migrants and explores feminism through this lens. She is the author of poetry books Love & F–k Poems, long-listed for Poetry Book Awards UK (2024) also translated into Greek as Ποιήματα για αγάπη και για γαμήσι, She’s Not Normal (2024), Just Give Me The Pills (2018) winner best book of narrative poetry American Book Fest (2024), and the short story collection The Mother Must Die (2024). Koraly’s vast opinion articles/personal essays have been published globally, including The Age, Washington Post, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Today. Her award-winning poetry film Yiayia mou won first place at the Monologues and Poetry International Film Festival in California and was a finalist for International film festivals and poetry prizes and was televised on SBS Australia and Cyprus on PIK.

POETRY Unpublished

 Journey to the iron gate, Stamatia Tsalouma

Greece

I came to Greece from Australia in 1991, with my husband and two young daughters. I had already had two poems published (one in my University magazine!) and was keen to write more. Little did I know that decades would pass before I could devote any serious time to my poetry. Nonetheless, I was discovering the great Greek poets in their own language, and that was thrilling enough. At first I was employed as an ESL teacher in Frondistiria, but as my own language skills began to improve, I found work as an Agronomist, which had been my occupation in Australia.

I would always pine for my country of birth, yet life in Greece rewarded and enriched me in countless ways, and when I had the opportunity to write again, it was this country that mostly inspired my work – its culture and history, the Greek orthodox religion, the stunning beauty of the countryside, the people I met and their stories, even the difficulties I and many others encountered. Expressing this experience through the medium of English will always be the greatest challenge for me. 

My poems have been published in Hecate Journal, Southerly, Antipodes (a Global Journal of Australian/New Zealand Literature), Antipodes (Journal of the Greek Australian Cultural League), Live Encounters, Poetry for the Planet (Australian Conservation Foundation Anthology), and on the internet channel Creative Cowboy, under the name of Matina Doumos.

RUNNER UP  place My soul to keep, Steven Bucher/ USA

Steven Bucher is an active member of the Poetry Society of Virginia (PSV) and presently co-hosts a monthly Zoom program sponsored by the PSV featuring guest Virginia poets reading and discussing their poetry.  Steven has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto and lives with his wife and family in the Virginia Piedmont, which serves as the backdrop for much of his poetry.  Steven’s first collection of poetry, We Stay a Brief Telling, was published by Propertius Press in 2021.  His poetry also appears in the Tidings anthology by Anomaly Poetry, The Orchards Poetry Review, the Trouvaille Review, the Blue Heron Review as well as many other hardcopy and on-line journals.  Steven maintains his online presence at brieftelling@substack.com.

SELF-PUBLISHED

Max Eidelman – Wonderland

Max Eidelman lives in the North Shore of Massachusetts. Wonderland is his first novel, but he has also written articles for a local Boston newspaper and the website Collider, as well as study guides for BookRags. Max is currently working on a second novel and plans to write more. In addition to writing, he also drums in a local band and plays mandolin.

RUNNER UP /Delphi, Karen Martin /Australia

Karen Martin is an award-winning Australian independent playwright and author. Her adventures in life have involved running away with the circus, creating plays in prisons, and striving to create transformational theatrical experiences. Karen received a Local History Award for the internationally acclaimed production of The Women’s Jail Project. Her debut novel Dancing the Labyrinth, written while living in Crete, won the Eyelands Book Award 2024 (Self-publishing). Her second novel The Bringer of Happiness was inspired from Languedoc folklore. Delphi is the sequel to Dancing the Labyrinth but can also be read as a stand-alone. She recently released a novella: Hypsipyle and the Curse of Lemnos. These books make up the thematic series – Women Unveiled, which blend Greek mythology, history and imagination in the telling of (almost true) stories.

Karen’s creative non-fiction include The Little Book of Red Flags and The Little Book of Apologies which take a humorous approach to relationships. Other non-fiction contributions include: The Women’s Circus: Leaping the Wire, and Women in Theatre: Ewa Czajor Memorial Award Recipients.

HISTORICAL  Published

The Fastest Girl on Earth – Lisa Brace

United Kingdom

Lisa Brace is an award-winning author, who combines penning novels with running her own PR business in the beautiful surroundings of West Sussex, UK.

She writes historical fiction, romantic fiction, and co-writes The Ruby Baker cosy crime series with fellow author D.E. White.

Her second book, SWIM, a historical fiction novel was runner up as Historical Novel of the Year 2024 (Eyelands Book Awards), and finalist in Best Historical Fiction and Best General Fiction in the New Generation Indie Book Awards.

She’s currently writing her third historical novel.

RUNNER UP / Beyond the black gate  – Mark  JF Hudson /

United Kingdom

Alongside writing short stories and reviews, Mark has volunteered in various charities including mentoring people coming out of prison and working in a community of people with learning disabilities. In his working life, Mark Hudson worked as an editor in the Economist Intelligence Unit before later co-founding a digital-government research and conferencing company.

Married and living in Dorset, UK, Mark is also a sculptor in stone. Beyond the Black Gate is his debut novel

HISTORICAL  Unpublished

Love is for the Brave –  Sophie Neville

United Kingdom

An award-winning British writer, Sophie Neville has a degree in anthropology and a background in TV production. After producing an INSET series and writing her own docu-dramas for BBC TV, she set up wildlife films in southern Africa. “My family moved to Tanganyika in 1919. After appearing in movies as a girl, I began working for the BBC on flagship dramas such as Doctor Who and EastEnders, but directed my first documentary for Channel 4 whilst driving from London to Johannesburg. After setting up wildlife films in Botswana, Namibia and the Cape, Sophie began collecting amusing true life stories. Returning to the UK in 2004, she wrote feature articles, made contributions to seven non-fiction books and brought out three memoirs: ‘Funnily Enough’, ‘Ride the Wings of Morning’ and ‘The Secrets of a Filming Swallows & Amazons’. The Lutterworth Press now publish this filmography as ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’. “I was commissioned to write my first screenplay by Dashwood Films, have completed a second, and have outlines for more.” Sophie now has two historical novels ready for publication. Both are set in East Africa and include amusing anecdotes she collected whilst volunteering on aid projects in the region.

CHILDREN’S PUBLISHED

Pandora’s Choice Subtitle: The Oracle Must Be Obeyed – E.A. Dickinson

U.S.A

My family “roots” are deep in British, French, Irish and Scandinavian bloodlines – all survivors of their, often treacherous, immigration to America from 1620 to 1920. My research of their stories, always wondering what motivated -or forced- them to leave the known for the unknown,  fueled my self-study of the historical events that propelled them on their great adventures.

My new writing life reflects my persistent curiosity – just as my life as a dance educator, a DNA lab technician, and a middle school science teacher positioned me to inspire my students to gather knowledge and sensory experiences to fuel their imagination and investigate the “origins of everything”.

As an American, at a time of real threats to our founding democratic principles, I am deeply concerned that young minds have the opportunity to read world history in a context which can be authenticated, but also connects with them emotionally. My first YA historical novel offers them over forty illustrations of museum artifacts alongside the migration story of a Greek teenager in 650 BC.  Like Pandora, I want them to have hope, and belief in the power of writing, freedom of speech and religion, and compassion for cultures beyond their own in space and time.

RUNNER UP /The Grand Master – Randal Moore

USA

Randall Moore hails from Boise, Idaho after living most of his life in Southern California. After a decades-long hiatus, he returned to fiction in 2013, and to date has completed 33 novels. He’s a rabid reader and lover of history, and peppers his tales with historical references, striving to make the details as historically accurate and pertinent as possible.

While he has extensive writing experience, from poetry, personal journals, newspaper articles, songwriting, and advertising copywriting, fiction has become his mainstay. He’s self-published 20 novels, published another with Atmosphere Press, and is working on his 32nd and 33rd. His novel The Brothers Tremaine received the Regal Summit Award for Historical Fiction in 2023, and in 2022 his novel The Merchant, the Janissary and the Corsair was a finalist for the Eyelands Book Awards.

He published a weekly column on wine for a daily newspaper in the 1990s, and was a contributing editor for The Underground Wine Journal. For more information please visit his website at randallmoorefiction.com.

MEMOIR

The Nutcracker Chronicles: A Fairytale Memoir -Janine Kovac /USA

Janine Kovac writes about power dynamics and women’s bodies. Before turning to writing, she enjoyed a 12-year career as a professional ballet dancer in Iceland, Italy, San Francisco, and in her hometown of El Paso, Texas. She has been published in Salon, Writer’s Digest, Publishers Weekly, and elsewhere. Her memoir, SPINNING: Choreography for Coming Home was a winner of the National Indie Excellence Awards and a semi-finalist for the Publishers Weekly’s BookLife Prize. Her second memoir THE NUTCRACKER CHRONICLES was a finalist for the American Best Book Awards. Janine has been awarded residencies at Hedgebrook, Mesa Refuge, and MacDowell. Her writing awards include the Elizabeth George Foundation Fellowship from Hedgebrook, the Gotham Writers Workshop BIPOC fellowship, the San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Award for Nonfiction and the Calderwood Fellowship for Journalism from MacDowell. She is the recipient of the deGroot Foundation’s “Courage to Write/Writer of Note” grant for her novel-in-progress, PROPOSITION. Her fiction is fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas. She lives in Oakland with her family.

RUNNER UP / Breakfast Wine -Alex Poppe / USA

Having lived in conflict zones such as Iraq, the West Bank, and Ukraine, Alex Poppe writes about fierce and funny women rebuilding their lives in the wake of violence. She is the author of Breakfast Wine, a yearning, funny, and deeply tender memoir-in-essay about Poppe’s wild ride through Iraq as an educator and humanitarian aid volunteer. Published by Apprentice House Press in June 2025, Breakfast Wine has just been named a finalist for Book of the Year by the Chicago Writers Association. Alex is also the author of four works of literary fiction: Duende, a 2024 American Legacy Book Awards winner, a 2023 International Book Awards winner, and a 2023 Readers’ Choice Book Awards finalist; Jinwar and Other Stories, a 2024 PenCraft Awards runner-up, a 2023 Readers’ Choice Book Awards winner, and a 2022 International Book Awards finalist; Moxie, and Girl, World, a 35 Over 35 Debut Book Award winner, First Horizon Award finalist, Montaigne Medal finalist, and Eric Hoffer Grand Prize finalist. Most recently, she served as the strategic communications advisor for a democracy and governance initiative at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Alex continues to be awed by place, people, and their stories.

SCI-FI/THRILLER/CRIME Published

Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever

 (CCHF diversion) – Bolat Ospanov

Kazakhstan

Ospanov Bolat Karimovich, am Kazakh-Naiman and was born in the village of Kokpekty in the Semipalatinsk region. I am a prose writer, winner of the International Literary Prize, Rome, Italy, 2024, and nominee for the International Literary Prize Lesnaya Polyana, Moscow, Russia, 2018; Doctor of Virology, PhD, Doctor of Medicine, member of the American Society for Microbiology. Awarded the Snake Bowl Medal by the Institute of Virology of the German Ministry of Defence.

I have novels published in England, Italy, the USA, and Russia. Overall, my writing career began in 2015 when I wrote the novel The Empire of Kushluk Khan, 2015, followed by the novel My Great-Grandfather Naiman, 2017, followed by the novel Silicon Aksary, 2019, and finally the novel Coronavirus, 2022, which were published in Moscow, Russia. These novels were sent by the publisher to libraries and are stored in various libraries in Russia. The novel My Great-Grandfather Naiman was nominated for the Lesnaya Polyana International Literary Prize, Moscow, Russia, 2018.

My novels are in English.

The novel Eternal Hereditary Prince was published in Rome, Italy, 2023, and was sent by the publisher to libraries and is stored in various libraries in Italy and England. This novel, Eternal Hereditary Prince, won an international literary award in Rome, Italy, which was presented at the Giona Theatre, near the Vatican, in 2024.

The next novel, Coronavirus Pandemic Syndrome, was published in London, England, in 2024. This novel was sent by the publisher to libraries and is stored in various libraries in the United Kingdom.

The novel Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever, Diversion was published in the United States in 2024.

SCI-FI/THRILLER/CRIME Unpublished

A Sweet and Faithful Lullaby… – Amichai Kolberg

Philippines

RUNNER UP/ Innocent Until – Jagdish Acharya /India

I am an advertising writer, having spent 15 years in creative leadership at a global advertising agency. Thereafter, I founded my own creative boutique agency based in Mumbai. I have several brand films and campaigns to my credit, and several of them have been well

awarded. My early campaign for Dhara—an edible oil brand—has been part of almost every classic advertising reel and still spoofed to this day in India.

Innocent Until is my debut novel. I’m especially drawn to stories of crime committed by ordinary people rather than hardened

criminals. As a reader, I value unpredictability until the very end. My choice of plot and subject reflects this preference—flawed characters and moral ambiguities. Extensive research, including interactions with experts, has gone into the work to ensure the accuracy of the procedural and technical matters.

CHILDREN’S Published

Pandora’s Choice   Subtitle: The Oracle Must Be Obeyed – E.A. Dickinson

U.S.A

My family “roots” are deep in British, French, Irish and Scandinavian bloodlines – all survivors of their, often treacherous, immigration to America from 1620 to 1920. My research of their stories, always wondering what motivated -or forced- them to leave the known for the unknown,  fueled my self-study of the historical events that propelled them on their great adventures.

My new writing life reflects my persistent curiosity – just as my life as a dance educator, a DNA lab technician, and a middle school science teacher positioned me to inspire my students to gather knowledge and sensory experiences to fuel their imagination and investigate the “origins of everything”.

As an American, at a time of real threats to our founding democratic principles, I am deeply concerned that young minds have the opportunity to read world history in a context which can be authenticated, but also connects with them emotionally. My first YA historical novel offers them over forty illustrations of museum artifacts alongside the migration story of a Greek teenager in 650 BC.  Like Pandora, I want them to have hope, and belief in the power of writing, freedom of speech and religion, and compassion for cultures beyond their own in space and time.

CHILDREN’S Unpublished

Flora’s Flock and Other Stories to Read Aloud – Mike  Mesterton-Gibbons

United Kingdom

Mike Mesterton-Gibbons is a Professor Emeritus at Florida State University and the author of several books on applied mathematics. After 40 years in Florida, he returned to his native England in 2022, and now lives in York. In addition to children’s stories, he regularly writes poetry, mainly light verse with an emphasis on acrostic sonnets and poems in dimeter. In 2020, he won the Adult Category of the Southern Shakespeare Company’s annual Sonnet Contest. His later poems have appeared in Light, Lighten Up Online, Oddball Magazine, WestWard Quarterly and several other journals.

RUNNER UP / Coco in the Land of the Heart – Toru Matsumoto /Japan

DISTINCTION U20

Karma – Sidney Garrett

United Kingdom

My name is Sidney. I have just started senior school. I enjoyed writing short stories at home, horror and thriller genre. I am always thinking what my next story will be as I want to be an author. I got greater depth in my year 6 SAT in English. I live in England with family and dog.

Murder by the page – Faith Bisong

Nigeria

I’m Faith Bisong, and I’ve been chasing stories since I could hold a pen. They have always been my favourite place to wander. Long before I ever called myself a writer, I was a twelve-year-old girl filling notebooks with contents of my own wild imaginations. What began as a simple escape soon grew into something deeper,

something that shaped my life. Books raised me as much as the world around me did, and with every chapter I read, I felt a stronger desire to create stories of my own. Over time, writing became more than a hobby. It became a passion that grew with me, a space where my imagination could breathe and where my voice found its strength which has helped me be more expressive

since I am unequivocally introverted. Writing, for me, is a patient art. I let each story unfold in its own time because it’s never just about perfect sentences, but about taking the audience on a real ride; one where they can feel the moments and emotions, not just read the words.

Being named a finalist is an honour I deeply appreciate. I’m grateful for this recognition and every step that brought me this far.

EYELANDS HONORABLE MENTION (equal to prize)

Memoirs of a Woman SURVIVOR from the First Year OF the Holocaust in Gaza –  Njoud Ghassan Salem

Palestine

Njoud Ghassan Salem is a freelance researcher and writer dedicated to exploring public health, social issues, and human rights through both scientific inquiry and creative expression. Born on October 2, 1994, in Saudi Arabia, she is a Palestinian woman currently living in Gaza, where she continues her work amid challenging circumstances.

Njoud holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Optics and is pursuing her Master’s in Healthcare Management. She has contributed to several research projects and analytical reports that highlight community needs, humanitarian realities, and evidence-based solutions. Her work reflects a strong commitment to documenting lived experiences and amplifying marginalized voices.

A multilingual communicator, Njoud’s native language is Arabic; she is fluent in English, has basic proficiency in French, and a good level of German. These skills enable her to engage effectively with international literature and diverse audiences.

Writing is her lifelong passion and the bridge through which she connects science, emotion, and storytelling. Whether working on research or crafting narratives, she seeks to illuminate resilience, identity, and the human dimensions of conflict and health.

From Gaza, Njoud continues to write and research with unwavering dedication, believing deeply in the power of knowledge and stories to inspire change and preserve truth.

GRAND PRIZE PUBLISHED BOOK

The Bright Highway – Nick Crawford

USA

Nick is a Southern California native and UC Irvine graduate (Zot Zot!). He began his career in advertising and film sales, writing and developing a wide variety of feature and TV scripts along the way. His love for filmmaking and photography have heavily influenced his approach to writing books, and his cherished friends, family, and mentors continue to make his world extremely bright. For more info: nick-crawford.com

(equal votes)

GRAND PRIZE PUBLISHED BOOK

Loukas & Lydia and the Secret of the Disk –  A.F. Helios

USA

A.F. Helios writes adventures for curious kids—the kind of stories where science, history, and wild ideas all end up in the same room. His debut novel, Loukas & Lydia and the Secret of the Disk, is the first in a series that looks at ancient myths with evidence, engineering, and a lot of heart.

As a composer, A.F. Helios writes music for media and video games, so he can’t help building scenes the way he builds a score: in little beats, long pauses, and the occasional sudden crash. He likes stories that feel as if you could almost step inside them—full of clues, small puzzles, and “what if?” questions.

At home, the first people to hear new chapters are his children, who have no problem saying, “this part is boring” or “read that again.” When he isn’t sending Loukas and Lydia into trouble, Helios is usually cooking with his family, fiddling with logic puzzles, or looking at maps and museum photos, wondering what might quietly slip into the next book. Loukas & Lydia and the Secret of the Disk is his first published novel and the starting point for a series of myth-bending journeys for young readers.

GRAND PRIZE UNPUBLISHED BOOK

Gandhi Colony – Vikram Kapur

India

Vikram Kapur has published three novels—The Assassinations, The Wages of Life and Time Is a Fire. His short stories and essays have appeared in World Literature Today, Litro, Beloit Fiction Journal, The Hong Kong Review, Mekong Review, Ambit, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Berlin Quarterly, Huffington Post, The Hindu Literary Review, The Times of India, Himal Southasian, and other publications. His short stories have been recognised in several international competitions which include, among others, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award, and the Fish International Short Story Prize. He has held writing residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, the Canserrat Arts Center, and Under the Volcano. He has a PhD in creative and critical writing from the University of East Anglia where he received the India-Africa bursary. He is currently a professor of English at the Shiv Nadar Institute of Eminence in India. His website is http://www.vikramkapur.com.