Sunday Submissions: Calls for Arab and Arabophone Graphic Novelists

The Berlin-based CORRECTIV recently announced two graphic novel fellowships for artists; one for artists from the Middle East and one for artists from subsaharan Africa. Also, the Beirut-based Mahmoud Kahil Award just opened submissions for comics artists, editorial cartoonists, and illustrators “from the Arab World”:

The CORRECTIV fellowships are for a six-month residence in Berlin. Each fellow, according to the CORRECTIV website, “will receive free housing, roughly 10.000 Euro for expenses for living in Berlin for six months, and the flights to and from Berlin.”

Also:

Each fellow will work with us in our newsroom on one of our investigation to transfer it into a graphic novel. After the end of the fellowship we will publish the novel as a book as part of our publishing activities – and we will publish it on our website, so that everybody can have access to the work.

Meanwhile, artists are encouraged to submit for the second annual Mahmoud Kahil Awards in five categories:

• USD $10,000 in the category of Editorial Cartoons
• USD $10,000 in the category of Graphic Novels
• USD $6,000 in the category of Comic Strips
• USD $5,000 in the category of Graphic Illustrations
• USD $5,000 in the category of Children’s Book Illustrations

Winners last year included Jordanian Amjad Rasmi, who took the Editorial-cartoon Prize; Egyptians Ahmad Nady, Ganzeer, and Donia Maher took the Graphic Novel Prize for The Apartment in Bab El Louk; Jordanian Mohamad Al-Muti took the comic strips prize for “The Handsome Sad Mysterious Man”; Lebanese illustrator Bahij Jaroudi took the Graphic Illustration category for “Last Breath”; and the winner in the Children’s Book Illustrations category was Lebanese illustrator Azza Hussein. 

There was also an Arabic Comics Guardian Award, which went to Egypt’s TokTok magazine and a Lifetime Achievement Award for Syrian artist Loujaina al-Assil.

Find out more about the Mahmoud Kahil Award at their website; and with the CORRECTIV fellowship. Deadline for the fellowship is August 31.