Abu Dhabi's 'Prince of Poets' launches third session

"We are pleased to have 35 new poet selected from the 200 who were interviewed by the contest's jury in Abu Dhabi in early May," said Mohammad Khalaf Al Mazrouei, Director General of Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), which organises the event.

"They were chosen out of about 1,000 formally-approved participations, from more than 7,500 poems received by the Poetry Academy from different Arab countries," he added in a speech given on his behalf by Issa Al Mazrouei, Director of Special Projects in ADACH.

Mazrouei said that seventy Arab poets, with more than 160 imaginative poems, were presented thanks to ADACH that launched the contest in its first and second sessions 2007 - 2008.

The competition primarily aims "to detect distinct poetic talents that have not been previously discovered by the media, to encourage new generations on the development of poetic talents, allow them to interact with the distinguished poets, and to identify rhythms and rhymes and various schools of poetry," explained Mazrouei.

The third session of the competition 'Prince of Poets', which will be launched on the evening of 11th of June, 2009 from Raha Beach Auditorium in Abu Dhabi.

"The 'Prince of Poets' achieved a global success and popularity. The proof is the increase in the number of poets in each year, and criticism, both positive and negative, received by the program occupying the minds of critics, writers and journalists,"

said Sultan Al Amimi, Director of the Poetry Academy in ADACH.

The Organizing Committee took into account the geographical dispersion of contestants in order not to let poets of the same nationality compete in the same episode, while taking into account the existence of poets from different regions in each episode.

Members of its Jury include: Dr. Abdul Malik Murtadd (Algeria), Dr. Ali bin Tamim (UAE), Dr. Salah Fadhel (Egypt), Mr Nayif Rashdan (Saudi Arabia), and Dr. Ahmed Kheris (Palestine).
The Jury rules on the ability of poets to perform and succeed in his presentation. It enjoys much power during each session of the programme.
The "Prince of Poets" competition lasts for 10 continuous weeks and is divided into three main stages in addition to the closing and final episode.

The competition begins with the participation of 35 poets. They compete in the first stage of the "Prince of Poets". The stages are as follows:
Stage I: This stage is divided into 5 episodes at a rate of one every week during which seven poets compete to book 3 cards of each episode to qualify for the second stage of the competition.
Stage II: This stage is divided into 3 episodes when 5 poets participate in every episode and only two contestants qualify.

Stage III: It is a transitional stage where all members of the committee and the public wait for the completion the final number of poets who are 6 poets after the results of the previous stage herald the qualification of only one poet from its last stage. The six poets compete against each other in the penultimate episode of the "Prince of Poets" Festival.

Only one of the six contestants does not make it to the last episode.

The last episode: Five poets, the crème de la crème of poetry knights, compete in this episode, which combines the votes of both the public and the committee on each of the five contestants.
The final results will announce the winners of the first three places and the top winner is given the title of the "Prince of Poets".

"Prince of Poets" is held under the patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and produced by ADACH.