The first round of Sarmad Fiction Writing Club was concluded in August 2021.
Based on the votes of our club members, the winners were the following works of flash fiction:
- First winner:
- “An Apology to Saramago” by Andreea Breazu
“I had a burnout and then I went to therapy” is what Andreea Breazu has to say about her story “An Apology to Saramago”. Everybody is apologizing, everybody, to the point where it becomes a “new normal”, and then a resistance movement forms, people start faking their apologies, they start lying to everyone, lying about working too, about working from home in a pandemic, until the internet stops…
- Second winners (with the same number of votes):
- “Afternoon Prayer” by Czar Kristoff and Arabella Paner
- “Zaar” by Zhale Farahani
"Afternoon Prayer” is a collaboration work, which started from a shared childhood memory; a 3-o’clock prayer broadcasted on the television. From this memory Czar and Arabella started to pray again, carefully building a new prayer from each other’s old memories. This is a piece of flash fiction, filled with flashing images.
“Zaar" is a story about a Zār ritual, which is a form of exorcism with sacrifices, trans-inducing dances and musical performances which can last for several nights in a row. The tradition has been alive among the sailing communities, in the Horn of Africa and all the adjacent regions connected to it through water, including the Persian Gulf. Zaar is the term for a demon/spirit who possesses individuals. Mama-Zaar in the story is the female master performing the (exorcizing) ritual.
In addition to the winning stories, we have published three other stories which we particularly liked in this round:
"Handshake" by Djata Bart-Plange
"A Possible Story" by Erik Visser
"Gular" by Eric Patel
︎︎︎ An Apology to Saramago
︎︎︎ Afternoon Prayer
︎︎︎ Zaar
︎︎︎ Handshake
︎︎︎ A Possible Story
︎︎︎ Gular
The first round of Sarmad Fiction Writing Club was concluded in August 2021.
Based on the votes of our club members, the winners were the following works of flash fiction:
- First winner:
- “An Apology to Saramago” by Andreea Breazu
“I had a burnout and then I went to therapy” is what Andreea Breazu has to say about her story “An Apology to Saramago”. Everybody is apologizing, everybody, to the point where it becomes a “new normal”, and then a resistance movement forms, people start faking their apologies, they start lying to everyone, lying about working too, about working from home in a pandemic, until the internet stops…
- Second winners (the same number of votes):
- “Afternoon Prayer” by Czar Kristoff and Arabella Paner
- “Zaar” by Zhale Farahani
“Afternoon Prayer” is a collaboration work, which started from a shared childhood memory; a 3-o’clock prayer broadcasted on the television. From this memory Czar and Arabella started to pray again, carefully building a new prayer from each other’s old memories. This is a piece of flash fiction, filled with flashing images.
“Zaar” is a story about a Zār ritual, which is a form of exorcism with sacrifices, trans-inducing dances and musical performances which can last for several nights in a row. The tradition has been alive among the sailing communities, in the Horn of Africa and all the adjacent regions connected to it through water, including the Persian Gulf. Zaar is the term for a demon/spirit who possesses individuals. Mama-Zaar in the story is the female master performing the (exorcizing) ritual.
In addition to the winning stories, we have published three other stories which we particularly liked in this round:
"Handshake" by Djata Bart-Plange
"A Possible Story" by Erik Visser
"Gular" by Eric Patel