Sheikh Zayed Book Award winners speak at the 2024 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. Image: ADIBF
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
A Programming note: The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is supporting a program at London Book Fair at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 13. titled The Prestige Paradox: Prizes in Translation. The question for the panelists is, “Apart from topping up bank balances and providing a surplus of warm and fuzzy feelings, to prizes matter in translation?” The session is set at the trade show’s Literary Translation Center and features translators Ian Giles; Jamie Bulloch; and Morgan Giles with And Other Stories publisher Stefan Tobler.
Al Tamim: ‘Exceptional Talent, Dedication, and Creativity’
Our Publishing Perspectives readers have followed our recent articles on the Sheikh Zayed Book Award longlists, as one of the world’s richest book and publishing prize program opened its 19th season. Those longlist stories can be found here and here.
Today (March 3), the Sheikh Zayed program has announced its shortlists from its headquarters at the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre—which is part of the United Arab Emirates’ capitol department of culture and tourism (ALC). The language center, under the direction of Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, is also the sponsor of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
The shortlists feature authors and institutions from 15 international markets, and the initial level of entries set another record when the program reported drawing more than 4,000 submissions from 75 nations. This year, the Zayed Award had first-time entries from Albania, Bolivia, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Mali.
Winners are to be announced this month, and the awards ceremony is set for April 28 at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
The Zayed Award program carries a purse of 750,000 UAE dirhams (US$204,215) in each of its book categories and annually has been worth a total of some 7 million dirhams (US$1.9 million). The Cultural Personality of the Year Category pays 1 million UAE dirhams (US$272,286) to its laureate.
Dr. Ali Bin Tamim
In a comment on the release of the new shortlists, Bin Tamim is quoted, saying that the shortlistings “highlight the exceptional talent, dedication, and creativity of writers and scholars shaping the future of Arab culture.
“This year’s selection is particularly notable,” he says, “for its international dimension, especially in the translation category, which underscores the vital role of literary translation in bringing Arab literature and thought to a global audience.
“We commend all the nominees for their outstanding contributions and celebrate the richness and diversity of voices represented.”
Literature
From left: ‘Hind or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World’; ‘The Sphinx’; and ‘Travels of the City of Clay Trilogy’
These shortlistees are drawn from a longlist pool in literature, with longlisted content from Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Sudan.
- The Sphinx’ by Ahmed Mourad from Egypt, published by Dar El Shorouk in 2023
- Travels of the City of Clay Trilogy by Saud Alsanousi from Kuwait, published by Dar Kalimat Publishing & Distribution – Moulaph in 2023
- Hind or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Hoda Barakat from Lebanon/France, published by Dar Aladab in 2024
Children’s Literature
From left: ‘The Digital Fox’; ‘Maymouna and Her Crazy Ideas’; and ‘The Phantom’
Longlisted works for the children’s literature category include 13 titles from seven countries: The UAE, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Qatar, Jordan, and Algeria.
- Maymouna and Her Crazy Ideas by Shireen Sabanegh from Jordan, published by Hachette Antoine/Nofal in 2023
- The Phantom of Sabiba by Latifa Labsir from Morocco, published by Markaz Kitab in 2024
- The Digital Fox by Hegra Elsawi from Egypt, published by Dar Shan Publishing & Distribution in 2024
Translation
From left: ‘The Demon of Theory: Literature and Common Sense’; ‘One Thousand and One Nights: The Book of Love’; ‘Orosius’
- Tausendundeine Nacht: Das Buch der Liebe (One Thousand and One Nights: The Book of Love), translated from Arabic to German by Claudia Ott (Germany), published by Verlag C.H. Beck in 2022
- Orosius by Paulus Orosius, translated from Arabic to English by Marco Di Branco (Italy), published by Pisa University Press in 2024
- Le démon de la théorie: Littérature et sens commun (The Demon of Theory: Literature and Common Sense) by Antoine Compagnon, translated from French to Arabic by Hassan Outtaleb (Morocco), published by Dar Alkitab Aljadeed in 2023
Literary and Art Criticism
- Food and Language: Cultural Excavations in Arab Heritage by Dr. Said Laouadi (Morocco), published by Afrique Orient in 2023
- Poetry and Prophecy: Abu Tayeb as the Poet-Prophet by Dr. Rita Awad (Palestine, published by the Arab Institute for Research & Publishing in 2024
- Urbanistic Samarra: A Study of Architecture and Planning of an Abbasid City by Dr. Khaled Alsultany (Iraq), published by Adib Books in 2024
Contribution to the Development of Nations
- The Right to Strive: Perspectives on Muslim Women’s Rights by Prof. Dr. Mohammed Bechari (UAE), published by Nahdet Misr Publishing in 2024
- The Philosophy of Recognition and Identity Politics: Criticism of the Cultural Approach to Arab-Islamic Culture by Housamedden Darwish (Syria/Germany), published by Mominoun Without Borders in 2023
- Cities and Trade in Arab and Islamic Civilization by Prof. Dr. Majduddin Khemesh (Jordan), published by Dar Alsayel for Publishing & Distribution in 2024
Editing of Arabic Manuscripts
- News of Women by Rasheed Alkhayoun from Iraq/United Kingdom, published by King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in 2024
- Interpretation of the Mu’allaqat Poems by Saleh Aljassar from Saudi Arabia, published by Alkhizana Alandalusia – Al-Khanji Library in Cairo in 2024
- Alkawakib Alsayaara fi Tartib Alziyara by Ahmed Gomaa Abdelhamid from Egypt, published by the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale in 2024
Arab Culture in Other Languages
- Arabic Literary Culture in Southeast Asia in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries by Andrew Peacock (UK), published by Brill in 2024
- The Rise of the Arabic Book by Beatrice Gruendler (Germany), published by Harvard University Press in 2020
- Geschichte des östlichen zagal: Dialektale arabische Strophendichtung aus dem Osten der arabischen Welt – von den Anfängen bis zum Ende der Mamlukenzeit’ (The History of Eastern Zajal: Arabic Poetry in Colloquial Dialects From the Eastern Arab World – From its Beginnings to the End of the Mamluk Era) by Hakan Özkan (Turkey), published by Ergon Verlag in German in 2020
More from Publishing Perspectives on the Sheikh Zayed Book Award is here, more on the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center is here, more on Arabic literature is here, and more on translation is here. More from us on publishing and book awards in the international industry is here.
Publishing Perspectives is the world media partner of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.
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