The annual Muslim Writers Award takes place this week in London. Nominations for its presitigious journalism prize include writers Ziauddin Sardar, Faisal al Yafai and Kia Abdullah.

Organisers have announced a partnership with publishers group Penguin Group.

Its managing director for UK operations, Helen Fraser, said: “Penguin is supporting the Muslim Writers Awards because we believe that there are immensely talented writers in the British Muslim community, not all of whom are finding it easy to get their work in front of publishers or literary agents.”

“We like to think that publishing is not a closed circle, and that talent will always make its way through the various barriers to publication, but we know from our work in trying to attract employees from different backgrounds that the book industry can seem baffling and hard to get into,” she added.

The event takes place on Wednesday 27th of May, at Hilton Hotel on Park Lane.

Full list of nominees

Published Fiction
Robin Yassin-kassab (The Road from Damascus, Hamish Hamilton)
Daniyal Mueenuddin (In Other rooms, Other wonders, Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd)
Kamila Shamsie (Burnt Shadows, Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd)
Tahir Shah (In Arabian Nights, Bantam Books)
Farahad Zama (The Marriage Bureau for Rich People, Abacus)
Judged by: Miranda Mckearney, Qaisra Shahraz and Zarah Hussain.

Published Non Fiction
Shahzad Aziz (In the land of Ayatollahs Tupac Shakur is King, Amal Press)
Fethiye Cetin (My Grandmother, Verso)
Yasmin Hai (The making of Mr Hai’s daughter: Becoming British, Virago Press Ltd)
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed (Love in a headscarf, Aurum Press)
Tariq Modood (Multiculturalism, Polity Press)
Judged by: Dr Claire Chambers, Dr Tahir Abbas, Hannah Westland and Dele Fatunla.

Journalism
How I arranged my daughters Marriage and others by Ziauddin Sardar.
The Paper Terrorists and other articles, by Faisal al Yafai.
A cause for shame, by Kia Abdullah.
Judged by: Fuad Nahdi and Ahmed J. Versi.

Unpublished Poetry
Saifullah Nasser, ‘The minaret and the Dome’ (West Midlands)
Sabina Atta, ‘Ears wide shut’ (Middlesex)
Ahmed Khan, selection of poetry (Birmingham)
Zimarina Sarwar, Howl, Anarchy, Simple pleasure (London)
Bahar Monif-Ullah, ‘Nescience’ (London)
Shameam Akhtar , selection of poetry (Bradford)
Wajid Hussain, selection of poetry (Newcastle upon Tyne)
Zahid Hussain, ‘The space of silence’ (selection of poetry) (Manchester)
Ruqqaiyyah Waris Maqsood, ‘Touched by Fire’ (selection of poetry) (Hull)
Judged by: Judith Palmer, John Siddique and Siobhan Logan.

Unpublished Novels
Tam Hussain – ‘Pantra Tigris Tigris’ and ‘the travels of Ibn Fudayl’ (Croydon)
Moharem El Gihani – ‘Morna Devlin’ (Cambridge)
Suhel Ahmed – ‘Broken Paths’ (Hertfordshire)
Saman Shad – ‘The view from above’ (London)
Qaisra Shahraz – ‘The potter’s son’ (Manchester)
Judged by: Robin Yassin-Kassab, Simon Prosser, Bernardine Evaristo, Vivian Archer

Unpublished Short Stories
Alia Kaussar –‘The shoe box on the floor’ (Birmingham)
Summayyah Sadiq – Ojibara – ‘At the edge’ (Australia)
Sahin Kathawala – ‘The pythoness in his heart’ (West Midlands)
Zahid Hussain – ‘M’ (Manchester)
Nedeem Ghulam-Mustfah – ‘The Harlot and the Siren’ (Bucks)
Irshad Ashraf – ‘The Drowners’ (Manchester)
Khuram Shahzad – ‘Cold age’ (Birmingham)
Humaira Rashid – ‘Crash and Burn’ (West Yorkshire)
Zimarina Sarwar – ‘Jonathan’ and ‘Night sky with a sun’ (London)
Judged by: Arzu Tahsin, Karen Ings, Laura Longring, Mahsuda Shah, Anya Serota.

Unpublished –Children’s stories
Farhad Ahmed – ‘The Adventures of the Fat Elf: Fat Elf in a sticky situation’(Liverpool)
Shamim Azam – ‘Sabrina and her Quest’ (Lancashire)
Zahid Hussain – ‘The Old Man and the Boy’ (Manchester)
Reba Khatun – ‘The Mysterious Neighbour’ (Birmingham)
Yanti Nizar – ‘The Singing Quran’ (Belfast)
Judged by: Asad Ahmed, Sufiya Ahmed, Shannon Park, Louisa Young, and John Newman.

Under 16’s Categories
This includes a poetry and short story category and is broken down by age categories; 8-10, 11-13 and 14-16 years old.