Image: International Prize for Arabic Fiction
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Six Books, Six Nations Represented
Six nations are represented in the shortlist announced this morning (February 19) by the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, that shortlist of course, being culled from the longlist published on January 7.
Following today’s release of those shortlistees, the program is to name its winner on April 24 in Abu Dhabi shortly before the opening of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, which runs April 26 to May 5.
While the winner receives US$50,000, each of the six shortlistees receives $10,000.
The shortlist’s authors come from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and—in a first for this competition’s shortlist—Mauritania. The shortlisted authors range in age from 38 to 58.
The 2025 International Prize for Arabic Fiction Longlist
As usual, the program’s organizers have helpfully presented the longlist to members of the news media with authors listed alphabetically by surname.
| Author | Title | Country of Origin | Publisher |
| Ahmed Fal Al Din | Danshmand | Mauritania | Masciliana |
| Azher Jirjees | The Valley of the Butterflies | Iraq | Dar al-Rafidain |
| Taissier Khalaf | The Andalusian Messiah | Syria | Al-Mutawassit |
| Mohamed Samir Nada | The Prayer of Anxiety | Egypt | Masciliana |
| Nadia Najar | The Touch of Light | United Arab Emirates | Al-Mutawassit |
| Haneen Al-Sayegh | The Women’s Charter | Lebanon | Dar al-Adab |
Comments on the Shortlist
Mona Baker, the 2025 jury chair, is quoted today on the release of the shortlist, saying that the jurors’ “main concern was not subject matter alone.
“The novel is first and foremost an artistic construction, and narrative representation and its forms are the novelist’s means of creating worlds that can only be achieved through imagination.”
And the board of trustees chair, Yasir Suleiman, says, “This is a shortlist to savor and enjoy for its range of themes, stylistic artistry, diversity of voices, and demographic spread.
Yasir Suleiman
“The anthropological framework in some of the novels takes the reader on journeys of discovery in which the narration strays onto less trodden pathways in Arab cultural life.
“Female characters and family dynamics feature prominently in some of the shortlisted works, revealing at times the slow and tortuous pace of social change. The effects of recent political calamities in the Arab world permeate some of the novels, revealing a dystopian world of loss, social disintegration, and searing fears.
“There’s no doubt that this shortlist will appeal to swaths of Arab readers and, when translated, to foreign readers who will find so much to marvel at. The appearance of four new writers on the list, including the first Mauritanian ever, will be a source of pleasure to reading audiences.”
Related article: The International Prize for Arabic Fiction Names Its 2025 Longlist. Image: International Prize for Arabic Fiction
In a useful mission statement for those who may be new to this program, the organization adds today, “The aim of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage the readership of high-quality Arabic literature internationally through the translation and publication of winning and shortlisted novels in other major languages.
“Recently winning novels published or forthcoming in English include Mohammed Alnaas’ Bread on Uncle Milad’s Table (winner 2022, anticipated publication in 2026 from HarperVia) and A Mask, the Color of the Sky (winner 2024, to be published by Europa Editions in 2026). A Mask, the Color of the Sky has already been published in Italian (Édizione/e) and Greek (Salto) and will be published in Portuguese and Spanish.
Disambiguation: Not ‘the Arabic Booker’
For clarification, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction sometimes is called “the Arabic Booker,” but the program’s organizers have said they’re ready to see the end of the misinformation of that terminology.
While it was initially mentored by the Booker Prize Foundation in London, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction’s organizers stress on their site that the Arabic Booker phrase is “not instigated nor endorsed at all by the International Prize for Arabic Fiction or the Booker Prize Foundation, which are two completely separate, independent organizations.” The program goes on to put it even more bluntly, writing that the International Prize for Arabic Fiction “is not in any way connected with the Booker Prize,” italics ours.
In an ongoing cooperative measure, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction again this year is sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, which under the direction of Dr. Ali Bin Tamim produces the larger Sheikh Zayed Book Award, with its 7.8-million-dirham purse (US$2.1 million), annually recognizing winning books in nine categories and a “Cultural Personality of the Year.”
The Cultural Personality honor includes a purse of 1 million dirhams (US$272,262).
Both of these award programs make generous efforts in funding translation of Arabic content into other languages.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the International Prize for Arabic Fiction is here, and more on publishing and book prizes in general is here. More on translation is here, and more on Arabic in the publishing world is here. More on the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair is here, and more on the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre and the work of Dr. Ali Bin Tamim is here.
Publishing Perspectives is the world media partner of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
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