Announcing the Winners of the Food & Memory Short Story Competition 🍉

Yum!

Hi friends,

I’m so excited to announce the winners of the Food & Memory Short Story Competition hosted by Stretch Your Shelf x Coffees For Gaza. They are:

1st Place - Blooming in the Wild by Ambata Kazi

2nd Place - Mantequilla by Angel Solorzano

3rd Place - Mama’s Masoor Ki Daal by Naariman Shafi

Congratulations!

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Here’s what the judges had to say:

Blooming in the Wild by Ambata Kazi

We asked for a short story, and we not only got a winner, but one that left us wanting to read more. Tahani is a little girl growing up in New Orleans but has never tasted gumbo, until she makes a visit to her grandmother’s, to stay the night, to sample her garden, to cook with her in her kitchen. Though they live just half an hour away, Tahani’s grandmother’s home is different to her own, in faith, in culture, and even in love. Ambata presents us with a Tahani who keeps her joys and expectations bottled, and her steps in check, and through her colourful and candid storytelling, brings out a Tahani who blooms in the wild. With settings plucked lovingly from memory and characters with depth and flavour, we are sure that this is simply a glimpse at a bigger story, one that we cannot wait to read.

Mantequilla by Angel Solorzano

Very confidently written, with sounds, smells, sudden scenes and Spanish words blending as they would in a child’s bright mind, Angel’s character bursts onto the pages in the delight of ‘baking’ in the mud in their yard while her mother kneads dough in the kitchen. The snatches of childhood memories are vibrant and the emotions as indulgent as the title. Here’s a story where memories can grow sharp, slicing through a perfect morning like a knife through butter, and how sometimes kneading the wounds carefully back together again is the best way to move forward.

Mama’s Masoor ki Daal by Narimaan Shafi

Part memoir, part homage and part recipe-poem, Narimaan’s short story is beautifully written and very evocative. Each ingredient for Mama’s daal has a character of its own - it is introduced by name, by personality, and how it likes to be treated. Each step of the recipe brought us deeper into the characters’ kitchen, until we were virtually leaning over the steaming pot, feeling the full magnificence of the cuisine rising up to warm our cheeks. Truly a treat for the senses, and a story that will help you build whole new relationships with your dishes, never ever seeing them the same way again.

Huge thanks to all participants and my fellow judges, Özge Sevindik, Tess Cullity and Elizabeth Pulsford! ❤️

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This competition was inspired by the publication of Tabkha: Recipes from Under the Rubble by Palestinian chef and mother, Mona Zahed, illustrated by 21 artists from Coffees For Gaza and published by Slingshot Books.

Winners will receive copies of Tabkha and prints of artwork from the book. Their stories will be featured on the Stretch Your Shelf website and podcast over the coming weeks, will delicious snippets on socials.

The comp was run as a fundraiser, and you can continue to support our humanitarian efforts by following @coffeesforgaza , @mona86_zahed , @tabkhabook , @slingshotbooks on socials, or more specifically:

• Joining the Coffees For Gaza Open Collective with a monthly donation of your chosen amount, reducing the hassle of individual donations and enabling us to send funds to our most urgent families from a large donation pool

• Reserving your copy of Tabkha as we actively prepare for a second print run

• Making a donation and engaging with any of the families from our Coffees For Gaza list

• Inviting a friend do this good work with you - Coffees For Gaza turns 1 this month, and with the genocide still raging, we are hoping for 1000 new subscribers. Even if you can’t contribute financially, your presence and support are vital!

I cannot express enough how even a small donation can make a difference - and I have not expressed enough how even a kind message can do a world of good. Let our families know they are not alone ❤️

Til next time

x

Inda