A young student from Edmonton, Mahamed Ahmed Olad has been selected for the Young Muslims Writers Awards 2015. Mahamed's story The Power of Self-Discipline, has made it to the final five in the Key Stage 3 Short Story Category, and shortlisted among just 40 for the overall prize.

The writers’ submissions have been assessed by a diverse panel of judges, including Carnegie Medal winner Tim Bowler and novelist and poet Louis de Bernières, an author most famous for his novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Children’s author Neil Arksey comments: “Each of these writers shows terrific promise and talent. They should all be very proud of their achievement in being selected for the award’’.

The Young Muslim Writers Awards began back in 2010 with age categories for five to 16 year olds in the wake of its success as part of Muslim Hand’s Muslim Writers Awards. Since then it has set up a series of creative writing workshops as well as the annual competition as a means of improving the literacy of, what is to date, thousands of children. It is being presented in association with the Yusuf Islam Foundation for the third year running, and will be broadcast on Islam Channel, the official media partner of the competition since 2006.

The winners for each category will be announced at a formal ceremony in London on December 5.

ymwa.org.uk