The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) announces the launch of its annual poetry award “Cities of Poems” as part of its Capitals of Culture in the Islamic World programme, which celebrates this year three cities: Marrakesh in the Kingdom of Morocco, Benghazi in the State of Libya, and Shusha in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The contest aims to revive and boost the relationship between poetry and the location, an ancient relationship that has inspired many poets to compose a collection of immortal poems in the field of Arabic and human poetry. It also aims to document poetically and aesthetically the history and geography of cities, and to honor the symbols and civilizations which mark the capitals of culture in the Islamic world through poetry, and to enrich the poetic corpus in the Islamic world and contribute to the literary and poetic movement.

The poems participating in the contest will be evaluated by a specialized committee from ICESCO and prominent poets, to select three winners from each city celebrated as the Capital of Culture in the Islamic World. The first-place winner will receive US$2000, the second-place winner will receive US$1500, and the third-place winner will receive US$1000, in addition to being awarded certificates of appreciation. ICESCO will publish a collection of the winning and distinguished poems participating in the contest.

Nomination for the award requires fulfilling the following conditions:
• The poem must be in classical Arabic or Azerbaijani language.
• The Arabic poem must adhere to the poetic meter, free or rhymed, and the poem written in the Azerbaijani language must adhere to the meter, enunciative or prosodic.
• The poem must be inspired by the values, aesthetics, history, geography, genius of the location and biography of the city that makes the subject of the poem.
• The poem must not exceed thirty verses/lines of poetry.

ICESCO invites all poets of all ages to participate in the contest through sending their proposals through the following link: https://icesco.org/9k90 , no later than 31 December 2024.