Longlist Announced for International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2016

www.arabicfiction.org

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) has today, Tuesday 12 January 2016, revealed the longlist of 16 novels in contention for the 2016 prize. Those selected were chosen from 159 entries from 18 countries, all published within the last 12 months.

The highest number of 2016 longlisted authors came from Egypt and Palestine.

Two of this year’s longlisted authors have been shortlisted for the prize previously: Rabai al-Madhoun and Mohamed Mansi Qandil both appeared on the IPAF shortlist in 2010, with al-Madhoun’s book, The Lady from Tel Aviv, now available in English translation from Telegram Books. Taleb Alrefai was also Chair of Judges for IPAF that year.

The list includes a number of younger writers and debut novelists. Three longlisted writers are under the age of 40, and first novels by Tareq Bakari and Abdennour Mezzine have been included. In addition, two of the longlisted authors – Mohamed Rabie and Shahla Ujayli – have previously participated in IPAF’s annual nadwa, or writers’ workshop, for emerging writers with promise. Ujayli worked on a section of her longlisted book, A Sky Close to Our House, during the 2014 nadwa.

The full 2016 longlist, with author names in alphabetical order, is as follows:

Title	Author	Country of origin	Publisher
Here	Taleb Alrefai	Kuwait	Platinum Books
Hymns of Temptation	Laila al-Atrash	Palestine/Jordan	Difaf Publications
Numedia	Tareq Bakari	Morocco	Dar al-Adab
The Temple of Silken Fingers	Ibrahim Farghali	Egypt	Al-Ikhtilef
People of the Palms	Janan Jasim Halawi	Iraq	Saqi Books
Mariam's Journey	Mahmoud Hasan al-Jasim	Syria	Dar Tanweer, Egypt
Desertified Waters	Hazim Kamaledin	Iraq	Fadaat
Destinies: Concerto of the Holocaust and the Nakba	Rabai al-Madhoun	Palestine	Maktabat Kul Shee
Letters of the Storm	Abdennour Mezzine	Morocco	Slaiki Akhawayn Publications
Warsaw a Little While Ago	Ahmed Muhsin	Lebanon	Hachette Antoine
The Prophecy of Saqqa	Hamed al-Nazir	Sudan	Dar Tanweer, Tunis
The Black Brigade	Mohamed Mansi Qandil	Egypt	Dar al-Shorouq
Mercury	Mohamed Rabie	Egypt	Dar Tanweer, Lebanon
Praise for the Women of the Family	Mahmoud Shukair	Palestine	Hachette Antoine
A Sky Close to Our House	Shahla Ujayli	Syria	Difaf Publications
The Guard of the Dead	George Yaraq	Lebanon	Difaf Publications

The books were selected by a panel of five judges, whose names will be announced in Muscat, Oman, on Tuesday 9 February 2016, at the same time as the 2016 shortlist of six titles.