Mutanabbi Prize Rules | AUIB Society of Arts and Letters

Proposed until the Founding Meeting on Tuesday, March 30, 2027.

How the Mutanabbi Prize is run, from eligibility to the award, for Qirtas’s editors, the judge, members who vote, and anyone whose work may be considered.

1. The prize

The Mutanabbi Prize is Qirtas’s one prize. It is named for al-Mutanabbi, the poet whose name Baghdad’s street of booksellers carries.
It is given at the Annual Meeting each April, from April 2028.
The Editor-in-Chief runs it and keeps these rules.
Winners receive a certificate. There is no cash prize.

2. Two categories

Category	For
Qirtas	The year’s best work published in Qirtas by a student Member
Qalam	The year’s best work by a Qalam student (first given in April 2029)

Each category has one winner a year. Both categories use one standard scoring (section 8).

3. The prize year

Each prize covers the year to March: work from April 1 to March 31 before the Annual Meeting.
The first prize, in April 2028, covers all work from the launch of auibsal.org to March 31, 2028.
Qalam first runs in summer 2028, so the Qalam category is first given in April 2029.

4. Eligibility

Qirtas category

Any piece published in Qirtas during the prize year, in any section except Games.
The author is a student Member of the Society: an AUIB student who has joined on auibsal.org. Associate Members and Honorary Members are not eligible.
A piece made by more than one person is considered as one work, and every maker shares the prize.
A piece published anonymously or under a pen name is eligible when the Editor-in-Chief knows the writer. If it wins, the writer chooses whether to be named.
A piece that has been corrected remains eligible. A piece taken down under SAL-EDT-01 is not.
There is no separate entry. The editors consider all eligible work.

Qalam category

Any work made in Qalam during the prize year by a student who took part in it. The work need not have been published in Qirtas.
The work is considered only with the school’s and parents’ written consent (SAL-EXB-01 · F-38), which also covers featuring it if it wins.
Qalam is run under SAL-EDT-03, and its safeguarding rules apply throughout.

5. The shortlist

After the prize year closes, the section editors each propose the strongest eligible work in their sections; the Qalam lead proposes work from Qalam.
The Editor-in-Chief and the section editors agree a shortlist in each category. The Editor-in-Chief sets its length each year.
Each shortlisted work is given a blind ID, and names are removed from every copy the judge sees.
The shortlists are announced on auibsal.org before the members’ vote opens, with Qalam students’ names hidden.

6. The judge

One outside judge reads both shortlists: a writer, artist, editor, or teacher who is not a member of the Society in any class.
The Editor-in-Chief invites the judge and tells the Council who it is.
The judge reads blind, by blind ID only, and scores each work out of 100 on the reader score sheet (SAL-EXB-01 · F-41): craft (30), voice and originality (25), depth and resonance (25), and lasting value (20).
The judge declares any link to a shortlisted author they recognize, and the Editor-in-Chief decides whether that work goes to another reader from outside the Society.
What the judge needs is added to Qirtas’s needs list. The judge is not paid.

7. The members’ vote

Voting members vote online on auibsal.org, by secret ballot, over a set window before the Annual Meeting.
Each voting member votes for one work in each category.
Only members vote. The vote is never open to the public.
In the Qalam category, students’ names are hidden: works are shown by title and blind ID only.

8. The result

Both categories use one standard scoring.

The judge’s score for each work, out of 100, counts for 70 percent.
The members’ score counts for 30 percent: each work’s share of the votes in its category, scaled so that the most-voted work scores 100.
The final score is 70 percent of the judge’s score plus 30 percent of the members’ score. The work with the highest final score wins. In a tie, the judge’s score decides.
The Editor-in-Chief and the General Secretary check the count.

9. Conflicts of interest

Everyone who takes part in shortlisting makes the conflict-of-interest declaration. Forms: SAL-EXB-01 · F-06.
Editors, the judge, and Council members recuse themselves from anything they are connected to. An editor whose own work, or the work of a close friend, partner, or relative, is under consideration steps aside from that category’s shortlist.
The judge has no link to the Society and judges only work they cannot connect to a person they know.
No officer, Council member, partner, or sponsor has any say in the result. The Publisher never selects work.
Complaints go to the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final.

10. The award

The winners are announced at the Annual Meeting each April.
Each winner receives a certificate. Certificates go on Qirtas’s needs list, kept by the Editor-in-Chief.
A Qirtas winner chooses whether to be named.
The winners are featured in the Edition.
The Qalam winner is named only by first name, last initial, and school, as in Qirtas; the full name appears only on the certificate. The certificate reaches the student through the teacher, and if the student attends the Annual Meeting, the safeguarding rules in SAL-GOV-03 apply.

11. Records

Blind IDs, the names behind them, the judge’s scores, and the vote counts live only in the Diwan.
Qalam students’ names are never copied into Notion.
The result, with the judge’s name, is published on auibsal.org after the Annual Meeting.

SAL-EDT-01 Editorial Standards and Stylebook
SAL-EDT-02 Qirtas Staff Manual
SAL-EDT-03 Qalam Program Handbook
SAL-GOV-03 Policy Manual
SAL-EXB-01 Leadership Handbook (forms register)