Laila al-Othman

Among the award recipients, were Saud Alsanousi in 2010, and Bassam Almusallam in 2013.

Another conflict that influenced her was the 2006 Lebanon War. The fighting in the country that she loved since her visit at the age of 8 years old inspired her to write Al-‘Asas (The Coccyx) and Al-Mahkama (The Trial).

In 2004 Uthman started giving out the Laila al-Othman prize. The prize is presented every two years to one talented young Arab writer for his or her creative fiction writings.

Her openness on social issues made her the target of criticism. She is against Islamists, they have filed lawsuits against her. In 2000 al-Uthman was briefly imprisoned for making blasphemous statements. The conviction is a result of her usage of the provocative words in her novel The Departure though both words had been approved by the Kuwaiti government back in 1984. Eventually, she was released on bail after 2 months.

Her works often deal with social conflict between men and women in Arabic society and the aspirations of women and their potential power in a hostile environment. Among her works are the novels The Woman and the Cat (1985), Sumayya Comes Out of the Sea (1986) and The Trial (2000) and the short stories A Woman in a Vessel (1976), The Departure (1979) and Love Has Many Images (1982).

Living in the father's post-divorce house was not pleasant. She was negatively labeled "the daughter of the first wife" and was mistreated by her stepmother and step-siblings. Her father ignored her and he remained absent for most of her early life. She began drawing on walls as a source of solace from her turmoils. While confined to her father's home, al-Othman demonstrated her love for education, which led her father and poet, Abdallah al-Othman, to open up his library to her. He told her that "one day, you'll be a famous poet." Abdallah forced al-Othman to attend all of his literary forums, but he did not allow her to publish any articles under her own name. She moved out of her father's house in 1965 and was truly free for the first time.

Laila al-Othman (sometimes Laylā al-'Uthmān) is a Kuwaiti writer, novelist, short story writer, and a famous fictionist who was born into a prominent Kuwaiti family in 1943, and only 22 years later she made her writing debut in a local newspaper featuring her opinion on social and literary issues. During the course of her career, she has published 14 collections of short stories, nine novels, and many news articles.

Laila al-Othman, is the fourth girl of the family, she was born in 1943 in Kuwait at a small seaside town. When she was born, her mother threw her out a window because she wanted a son. In the end, al-Othman was saved by the nurse. Many of her future works are inspired by this unfortunate event. Sometime in her childhood, her parents divorced, and al-Othman ended up living with her father and step-sisters.