International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2013 Winner Announced

 The Bamboo Stalk by Saud Alsanousi

wins International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2013

www.arabicfiction.org

·         First Kuwaiti author to win the Prize

·         Youngest author to win Prize at 31

·         Novel offers a daring look at the plight of foreign workers in the Gulf region

The Bamboo Stalk by Saud Alsanousi has tonight, Tuesday 23 April 2013, been announced as the winner of the sixth International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

The winner was named by this year’s Chair of Judges, the Egyptian writer and academic Galal Amin, at a prize ceremony in Abu Dhabi. In addition to winning $50,000, Alsanousi is guaranteed an English translation of his novel, as well as increased book sales and international recognition.

A daring work which looks objectively at the phenomenon of foreign workers in Gulf countries, The Bamboo Stalk is the story of Issa, the son of a Kuwaiti father and a Filipino mother.

On returning to his father’s homeland as an adult, Issa finds himself in a difficult position. Rather than the mythical country his mother has described to him, he discovers he is caught between the natural, biological ties he shares with his father’s family and the prejudices of a traditional society, which views a child of Kuwaiti-Filipino heritage as socially unacceptable. Skilfully constructed, The Bamboo Stalk is a story of great strength and depth which questions identity in modern society.

Born in 1981, Alsanousi is the youngest writer to win the Prize. The Bamboo Stick is his second novel; his first, Prisoner of Mirrors, was published in 2010.

The Bamboo Stalk has been chosen as the best work of fiction from the last 12 months, selected from 133 submissions from across the Arab World. On behalf of the 2013 Judging Panel, Galal Amin comments on the winning novel:

‘‘The members of the Judging Panel are delighted that The Bamboo Stalk has won the Prize. All the Judges agreed on the superior quality of this novel, both artistically and also in terms of its social and humanitarian content.’

The five other shortlisted finalists were also honoured at the ceremony alongside the winner; each of the finalists, including the winner, receives $10,000.

The six names on the shortlist were announced in January, in Tunis, by a distinguished panel of academics and cultural figures. Chaired by Galal Amin, the Judging Panel is: Lebanese academic and critic Sobhi al-Boustani; Ali Ferzat, who is head of the Arab Cartoonists' Association, and owner and chief editor of the independent Syrian daily newspaper Al-Domari; Polish academic and Professor of Arabic Literature at the Arts College of the Jagiellonian University of Cracow, Barbara Michalak-Pikulska, and Professor Zahia Smail Salhi, specialist in Arabic Literature Classical and Modern and Gender Studies at Manchester University.

The Prize is supported by the Booker Prize Foundation in London and funded by the TCA Abu Dhabi in the UAE, which marks its first year as the new sponsor of the Prize in 2013.

Jonathan Taylor, Chair of the Board of IPAF Trustees, comments: ‘The Prize has a history of discovering new voices and we’ve done that again this year. The Judges have been working without fear or favour with their sole objective to identify the best of Arabic fiction published over the last year. We salute a distinguished shortlist and congratulate an outstanding winner.’

To date, five of the six winning novels have secured deals for publication in English. Overall, winning and shortlisted books since 2008 have been translated into over 20 languages.

For further information about the Prize, please visit www.arabicfiction.org or follow the Prize on Facebook.

THE WINNER

                                   

Saud Alsanousi

Saud Alsanousi is a Kuwaiti novelist and journalist, born in 1981. His work has appeared in a number of Kuwaiti publications, including Al-Watan newspaper and Al-Arabi, Al-Kuwait and Al-Abwab magazines and he currently writes for Al-Qabas newspaper. His first novel The Prisoner of Mirrors was published in 2010 and in the same year won the fourth Laila al-Othman Prize, awarded for novels and short stories by young writers. In the "Stories on the Air" competition organised in July 2011 by the Al-Arabi magazine with BBC Arabic, he won first place for his story The Bonsai and the Old Man.

The Bamboo Stalk           

Josephine comes to Kuwait from the Philippines to work as a household servant, leaving behind her studies and family, who are pinning their hopes for a better future on her. In the house where she works, she meets Rashid, the spoiled only son of Ghanima and Issa. After a brief love affair, he decides to marry Josephine, on condition that the marriage remains a secret. But things do not go according to plan. Josephine becomes pregnant with José and Rashid abandons them when the child is less than two months old, sending his son away to the Philippines. There he struggles with poverty and clings to the hope of returning to his father's country when he is eighteen. It is at this point that the novel begins. 

The Bamboo Stalk is a daring work which looks objectively at the phenomenon of foreign workers in Arab countries and deals with the problem of identity through the life of a young man of mixed race who returns to Kuwait, the ‘dream’ or ‘heaven’ which his mother had described to him since he was a child.

ABU DHABI INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR

The 2013 winner announcement took place on the eve of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2013. Saud Alsanousi will take part in his first public event at the book fair on Wednesday 24 April, and there will also be a series of talks held with some of the shortlisted finalists. Details as follows:

Meet the Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2013

Date: Wednesday 24 April

Venue: Discussion Sofa

Time: 7-8pm

Host: Dr Maan Al Taie

Live Book Club

Sinan Antoon talks about “Ave Maria” with Al Raweyat

Date: Wednesday 24 April

Venue: The Tent

Time: 17:30 – 18:30

Ibrahim Issa on how to write and how to read after the Arab Spring
Date: 25 April 

Venue: Discussion Sofa

Time: 19:00 – 20:00

Host: Mohamed Mazrouei 

Live Book Club
Kutub Bilarabi and Iqraa Arabic Book Group discuss The Beaver with Mohamed Hassan Alwan 
Date: 25 April 

Venue: GCC stage

Time: 17:30 – 18:30

Further information on the above events, as well as additional events with IPAF authors at the fair, can be found on the book fair’s website: www.adbookfair.com