The Barjeel Art Foundation is pleased to launch the Barjeel Poetry Prize, an international competition that invites poets to respond to twenty works of Arab art from the 20th century.

Art and poetry have a long history of mutual inspiration; the Barjeel Poetry Prize aims to encourage fresh engagement with Arab paintings from the Barjeel collection, and to celebrate Arab art in its myriad forms by inviting poets to respond to it in two languages. 

How to respond to the painting of your choice is open for interpretation. The relationship between poem and painting could be direct or tangential; you may choose to engage with the work, the painter’s story, or to address what the art evokes in you. The conversation the poem has with the painting can challenge and/or echo it.

The prize is open to all poets worldwide in six categories: 

1) Arabic-language poem (adult), judged by poet Asmaa’ Azaizeh

 2) Arabic-language poem (14-18), judged by poet Golan Haji

3) English-language poem by authors of Arab heritage (adult), judged by poet Hala Alyan

4) English-language poem by authors of Arab heritage (14-18), judged by poet Naomi Shihab Nye

5)  English-language poem by authors internationally (adult), judged by poet Tishani Doshi

6) English-language poem by authors internationally (14-18), judged by poet Raymond Antrobus

Please click on the relevant category above for more detailed guidelines. 

Please note that email submissions and submissions in more than one category are not allowed. Submissions in the wrong category will not be considered. Submissions of more than one poem will also not be considered. 

The award is open for entries from August 15, 2020 through October 15, 2020 and offers cash awards of $500 for the first prize winner and $250 for one runner-up in each category. The winning poems will also be published in the literary magazine Rusted Radishes and displayed in the Barjeel museum beside the paintings with which they converse. 

Entrants must submit a poem based on one of the twenty selected artworks below. Entries will be processed by a panel of screeners, and 50 finalists in each category will be forwarded anonymously to the judges. 

We look forward to reading your poems! 

Contact info: poetry@barjeel.com

Enter your poem through our Moksha portal

Abdel Hadi el-Gazzar, Two People in Space Outfits

Afifa Aleiby, War Paintings (The Destruction of Iraq)

Mohammed Issiakhem, Woman and Wall

Hassan Sharif, Black and White

Zeinab Abdel Hamid, Quartier Populaire

Inji Efflatoun, Dreams of the Detainee

Mona Hatoum, Witness

Munira Al-Kazi, Untitled (Crucifixion)

Haguette Caland, Body Parts

Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq, Untitled (Zaar)

Gazbia Sirry, Portrait of a Nubian Family

Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Last Sound

Safia Farhat, The Bride

Leila Nseir, The Martyr (The Nation)

Marwan Kassab-Bachi, Three Palestinian Boys

Dia al-Azzawi, A Wolf Howls: Memories of a Poet

Naim Ismail, Al Fiddaiyoun (Freedom Fighters)

Asim Abu Shakra, Cactus with City in the Background

Suha Shoman, Chanson Mystique

Hamed Ewais, The Protector of Life