Birmingham hosts the Muslim Writers Awards

Mar 31 2008 By Patrice John

BUSINESS moguls, pop stars and literary giants joined forces at a major literary event in the city.

The Muslim Writers Awards ceremony saw Jackson Five member Jermaine Jackson presenting awards to budding writers at the ICC, Birmingham.

The event was organised by Innovate Arts and hosted by Birmingham Mail blogger Faraz Yousufzai who said: "The atmosphere was electric and people remarked about the quality, diversity and the scale of the event.

"It was fantastic having Jermaine Jackson there and had he not given his support from the beginning I do not think we could have done what we did in such a short space of time.

"In 12 months we managed to get 10,000 submissions of work which showed us there is an ocean of untapped Birmingham talent that Innovate Arts is starting to discover."

More than 1,000 people attended and Dragon's Den star James Caan, who was unable to make the event, greeted the audience with a video message. Faraz said the event has helped to build a network of artistic people.

"We have been able to build up such a network of writers from across the business," he said.

"We are eventually hoping that we can use these awards as a bridge into the mainstream."

A total of 26 Muslim writers, including novelists, poets, under 16s and journalists, competed for the prizes in eight categories.

Jermaine Jackson, a Muslim convert who appeared in Celebrity Big Brother last year, handed over the prestigious Writer of the Year award which was won by Aliya Vaughan.

It is the second year for the awards, organised by Aston-based not-for-profit company Innovate Arts CIC in partnership with Birmingham Libraries, the Islam Channel, which broadcasted the ceremony, Yorkshire Bank and Radisson SAS.

The winners were:

Non Fiction Award - Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, London

Short Story Award - Kashif Choudry, Solihull

Novel Award - Fatima Martin, Woking, Surrey

Poetry Award - Shameam Akhtar, Bradford

Under 16s Award - Humaira Rashid, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

Best Children's Story Award - Aliya Vaughan, Brixton Hill, London

Published Writer Award - Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham

Writer of the Year Award - Aliya Vaughan, Brixton Hill