Following the open call launched in December 2025, the writers were selected from a pool of more than 160 applications from the Arab world and beyond. An advisory committee comprised of Salah Badis (writer, translator & journalist, Algeria), Yasmin Zaher (writer & journalist, Palestine), and Zeina Hamwi (writer & journalist, Syria) helped guide the selection process. The writers invited for this edition are:
Haneen Naamneh (b. 1985, Palestine) to work on God’s Finger Fiddles with our Noses, a short story collection that delves into the lives of children and youth in a Palestinian village across different time periods, spanning the Gulf War and the introduction of satellite TV. Through their eyes, the collection explores the impact institutions have on shaping lives, articulating the complexity of family and social relations in general as well as in puberty and its subsequent transformation of one’s awareness and body.
Sara Aljack (b. 1980, Sudan) to work on Mariam’s Orchestra, a novel that aims to compose a musical piece by combining independent musical units, which come together through rhythm and frequencies rather than linear progression. The novel follows Mariam, a fatherless child abandoned the day she was born, and the therapy she undergoes through music. Her journey involves encounters with human and nonhuman creatures through which philosophies are conceived, places are imagined, and the natural and supernatural are interweaved.
This edition of the Writing Sabbaticals supports published literary authors from the Arab world working in contemporary fiction who are at the final stages of a new manuscript. The participants receive a stipend to allow them to take time out of their day jobs and daily preoccupations to focus on finalizing their manuscript, and are offered the support of a peer to help them edit and prepare their project for publication.