Tripoli, January 1, 2025 — The judging committee for the Kamil Al-Maghour Short Story Award announced that the story “The Time Seller” has won the award in its second cycle for the year 2025.
The judging committee explained in its technical rationale published on its website this Thursday that the story belongs to symbolic fantasy and is built on a clear duality represented by humanity’s pursuit of immortality and its helplessness against the passage of time. The evocation of the character Gilgamesh and his mythical entrance formed an intelligent framework for posing a profound existential question: Do we own time, or does time own us? The text concludes that true immortality is not achieved through the body, but through the valuable impact and works accomplished by an individual.
The committee also praised the story’s cohesive language, its creative imagination, and its symbolic use of time as a commodity that can be sold and acquired, within a narrative vision crafted with care and supported by broad cultural knowledge.
The award congratulated the writer on this well-deserved win, commending all the stories that made it to the shortlist and the advanced artistic level reflected in their texts. It also extended sincere thanks and appreciation to all the writers who participated in this year’s cycle and contributed to its success with their creative works.
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city of Libya, with a history dating back to the 7th century BC when it was founded by the Phoenicians. It later became a significant part of the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and an Italian colony, which is reflected in its diverse architecture, such as the old Medina and the Red Castle (Assai al-Hamra).
Kamil Al-Maghour Short Story Award
The Kamil Al-Maghour Short Story Award is a prestigious literary prize in Libya, established to honor the legacy of the renowned Libyan writer Kamil Al-Maghour, a pioneer of the modern Libyan short story. It aims to encourage and recognize excellence in short story writing among Libyan authors, serving as a significant platform for contemporary Libyan literature.
The Time Seller
“The Time Seller” is a conceptual art installation or performance piece that critiques modern consumer culture by symbolically “selling” time as a commodity. Its history is rooted in contemporary art movements that use interactive experiences to comment on societal pressures and the monetization of intangible aspects of life.
Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient Mesopotamian literary masterpiece, originally written on clay tablets in cuneiform script. It recounts the adventures of the legendary King Gilgamesh of Uruk, exploring themes of friendship, mortality, and the search for eternal life, and is considered one of the world’s oldest surviving works of literature.
