UAE's Top Schools and young authors take centre stage at NYAF UAE 2025–26

Hundreds of students across the UAE turn ideas into published books, showcasing a new generation of storytellers and creative talent

Hundreds of students across UAE have stepped into the world of publishing through the National Young Authors’ Fair (NYAF) UAE 2025–26, an initiative by BriBooks that encourages children and teenagers to write, illustrate, and publish their own books.

This year’s edition brought together young storytellers from schools across all seven emirates, highlighting the growing culture of creativity, literacy, and student authorship within the UAE education community.

Open to students from Grades 3 to 12, the programme guided participants through the complete journey of becoming published authors from idea generation and writing to illustration and final publication. Using BriBooks’ AI-supported writing platform, students independently created original books across genres including fantasy, science fiction, adventure, poetry, and personal narratives.

Many of these books are now available on global publishing platforms, giving students the opportunity to see their work reach readers beyond the classroom.

A growing community of young storytellers

The 2025–26 edition saw strong participation from schools across Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah, Ajman, and Al Dafra, reflecting the broad reach of the programme across the UAE.

According to BriBooks, the UAE has emerged as one of the most active regions in the global NYAF network, which currently spans more than 32 countries including the USA, India, Australia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

This year alone, the UAE students collectively published hundreds of books, demonstrating remarkable enthusiasm for storytelling and creative expression.

“Every child has a story worth sharing. NYAF gives students the confidence to express themselves, develop their creativity, and experience the pride of becoming published authors,” said the BriBooks team.

National literary leadership rankings – top schools

Schools were recognised based on overall student participation and the number of completed published books submitted through the programme.

Top 10 schools – NYAF UAE 2025–26

Schools from across the UAE demonstrated strong engagement with the programme, with participation extending well beyond major urban centres. The representation of schools from Fujairah, Ajman, and Al Dafra reflects how student publishing and creative writing initiatives are reaching learners across diverse communities throughout the country.

Top 10 bestseller authors

The bestseller category recognised books that achieved strong reader engagement and popularity among audiences.

Bestseller authors – NYAF UAE 2025–26

The range of titles showcased the diversity of interests and imagination among the UAE students, spanning adventure, science fiction, emotional storytelling, and fantasy-inspired narratives.

Jury choice authors recognised for literary excellence

In addition to bestseller rankings, a distinguished jury panel comprising educators, authors, and publishing professionals selected books based on creativity, originality, storytelling quality, and literary depth.

Jury choice authors – NYAF UAE 2025–26

Several winning stories explored meaningful themes including empathy, inclusion, emotional wellbeing, imagination, and social awareness - reflecting the depth and maturity of today’s young authors.

Speaking on the initiative, the BriBooks team said: “Every child has a story worth telling. NYAF gives students the opportunity to become published authors and discover the power of their own voice.”

BriBooks is a global writing and publishing platform that enables school students to become published authors using AI-powered creative tools. Its flagship initiative, the National Young Authors’ Fair (NYAF), is one of the world’s largest book-writing competitions for students in Grades 3–12 and is currently active across 30+ countries including the UAE, India, the USA, Australia, Singapore, and the UK.

Building on the success of NYAF, BriBooks has also launched the Summer Book Writing Festival (SBWF) 2026  one of the world’s largest online summer camps for young writers - where students learn storytelling from global experts and publish their own books during the summer break. Registrations open now.

As the 2025–26 edition concludes, NYAF UAE celebrates not only its winners, but every student who took the first step toward becoming an author.