Terms and Conditions

• Entrants must be UAE residents to apply. Shortlisted writers must be prepared to attend the prize-giving ceremony in Dubai at their own expense.

• The competition is open for writers of all abilities from the ages of 16 years old and above.

• The age of the participant (for each age category) is based on the closing date of the competition (Friday, 11 December 2026).

• Only one story will be accepted from each applicant.

• Stories should not exceed the stated word limit. While a maximum allowance of 10% over the word limit applies, this should not be treated as an alternative target word count.

• Stories should be unpublished and not previously submitted to any other competition, including those run by the Foundation.

• Stories submitted to previous editions of the competition may be resubmitted, provided they have been revised or edited before being entered again. Previous prize-winning authors are not eligible to enter future editions of the competition. This restriction does not apply to authors who received a Special Mention, who remain eligible to participate.

• By submitting your work, you grant Emirates Literature Foundation and ELF Publishing first world electronic rights (text and audio), first print rights, non-exclusive anthology rights for inclusion in ELF Publishing’s annual anthology or related publications, and first right of refusal for any subsequent publication, adaptation, serialization, translation, or derivative works based on the accepted piece.

• All work submitted must be entirely your own. Any stories found to contain non-original content will be excluded, including any material found online.

• Participants submitting stories for this competition must verify that they have not used any Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to write their story. Stories found to have used AI will be disqualified.

• The winning entrants agree to the Emirates Literature Foundation and the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature’s use of their name and photographs, and videos in related publicity materials and activities. Any participants below 18, should be aware that they might need to obtain parental consent for this.

• Entries must be submitted through the official entry form on or before 11:59 PM on Friday, 11 December 2026. Entries submitted after will not be considered.

• Judges’ decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into with regard to these decisions.

• The prize will not be transferable to any person.

• Participation in the competition is not open to employees (and/or members of their immediate families) of the Emirates Literature Foundation.

  Following normal conventions for writing competitions internationally, entries which do not adhere to the said terms and conditions will not be considered.