International Prize for Arabic Fiction

DIARY NOTE:

 

International Prize for Arabic Fiction Winner Announcement
www.arabicfiction.org | #ArabicFiction2018

 

The winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2018 will be announced at a ceremony at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday 24 April, from 7pm (GST). The ceremony will be followed by a press conference with the 2018 winner from 8.30pm (GST) at the same venue. The winner announcement is strictly embargoed until 8.30pm (GST)/ 5.30pm (GMT).

 

The 2018 shortlist, with author names in alphabetical order, is as follows:

Author	Title	Country of origin	Publisher
Amir Tag Elsir	Flowers in Flames	Sudan	Dar Al Saqi
Aziz Mohammed	The Critical Case of "K"	Saudi Arabia	Dar Tanweer, Lebanon
Ibrahim Nasrallah	The Second War of the Dog	Palestine/Jordan	Arab Scientific Publishers
Shahad Al Rawi	The Baghdad Clock	Iraq	Dar al-Hikma, London
Walid Shurafa	Heir of the Tombstones	Palestine	Al Ahlia
Dima Wannous	The Frightened Ones	Syria	Dar al-Adab

 

EVENTS

To celebrate all six shortlisted authors and novels for the 2018 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, there will be a special series of events taking place in Abu Dhabi.

These are:

·         Sunday 22 April, Emirates Writers’ Union, Abu Dhabi National Theatre , 7.30pm
An event in partnership with the Emirates Writers’ Union and NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, will see writer and broadcaster Yassin Adnan chair an panel of five of the shortlisted authors

·         Monday 23 April, NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, 6.30pm
Shortlisted author Walid Shurafa will speak about his novel Heir of the Tombstones. Shurafa has been invited to speak at the university by the co-curator of Permanent Temporariness, an exhibition at the NYU Abu Dhabi art gallery which focuses on the life of refugees, in particular, the Palestinians, which is the focus of his novel.
This event will be in Arabic.

ABU DHABI INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR EVENT

Following the announcement of the winning novel on the evening of Tuesday 24 April, the winner will take part in their first public event as the winner of the Prize, alongside the five shortlisted authors, on the opening day of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.

·         Wednesday 25th April, Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, 7-9.30pm, Sea of Culture Foundation Stand
Winning and shortlisted authors will take part in a salon event hosted under the patronage of Sheikha Sheikha bint Mohammed bin Khalid Al Nahyan.

Further information about the fair can be found on the book fair’s website. http://adbookfair.com/en/ 

 

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is recognised as the leading literary prize in the Arab world. It is awarded for prose fiction in Arabic and each of the six shortlisted finalists receives $10,000, with a further $50,000 going to the winner.

 Last year’s winner of the Prize was A Small Death by Mohammed Hasan Alwan.

Fulfilling its ambition to increase the international reach of Arabic fiction, the Prize provides funding for English translation for its winners. This year has seen the publication of 2014 winner Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad by Oneworld in the UK and Penguin Books in the US. Its translation rights have been sold for a further 12 languages including Cantonese and Mandarin.

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is run with the support, as its mentor, of the Booker Prize Foundation in London and sponsored by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi).