DOHA, Sept 13: The Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) announced Sunday the qualification of a Kuwaiti poet in the classical poetry category and seven others in the Nabati poetry category to compete in the final competitions for the Katara Prize 2021 for the poet of the Prophet (PBUH), in its fifth session. The Foundation said in a statement that 30 competitors out of 1,498 participated in this session, which started on October 27, 2020, qualified for the finals, adding that the final qualifiers are scheduled to resume next November through three qualifying stages. The statement explained that in the first stage, 15 participants in the classical poetry category and 15 others in the Nabati poetry category will compete in three episodes in front of the final judging panel, which will select at the end of the episodes five participants from each category to qualify for the semi-finals stage, which will result in the selection of three winners for each category.

It added that the qualified from Kuwait in the category of eloquent poetry, Abdullah Al-Anzi, and in the category of Nabati poetry, Dari Al-Marri, Abdullah Al-Hajri, Faleh Al-Hajri, Fahd Al- Ajmi, Muhammad Al-Ajmi, Muti` Maree, and Naqa Al-Mutairi. For his part, the Director-General of the Foundation, Dr. Khaled Al-Sulaiti, said that the Katara Prize for the poet of the Prophet (PBUH) was withheld last year 2020 in its fifth session due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Al-Sulaiti added that due to the specificity of the award, which is that the poetic recitation of the contestants on the Katara stage is part of the evaluation and selection of winners, so it was necessary to postpone this session to be held in the competitive atmosphere that the audience is accustomed to through direct transmission on Qatar TV. The total value of the prize is 4.2 million Qatari riyals ($1.1 million) in the classical and Nabat poetry categories, with an average of three prizes for each category 400 thousand riyals (about 109 thousand dollars). (KUNA)