Sheikh Zayed Book Award long lists for 10th cycle unveiled

The organisers of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA) have announced the long lists in six categories: Contribution to the Development of Nations; Children’s Literature [including adolescents’ books]; Young Author; Translation; Literature and Literary and Art Criticism, totalling some 70 works.

Each category has three judges who are appointed yearly to independently evaluate the nominations and submit their assessment results to the Scientific Committee for another round of assessment resulting in a short list, which then is presented to the Board of Trustees to decide on the winners.

With the conclusion of the reading panels’ work, the SZBA judging panels will commence assessment and evaluation of filtered works which will extend until February 2016. The judges submit their views to the Scientific Committee for a third round of evaluations to decide on the short list of the best nominations in this category, after which the winners are chosen.

The long list for the Young Author prize in the tenth cycle consists of 11 titles out of 335 nominations. The nominations came from 18 Arabic countries, mostly from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan. The successful nominations include Al bunyat al dalaliya fil lugha al arabiya  (The semantic structure of time in the Arabic language) by Abdel Kebir Elhassani of Morocco, published by Dar Konoz, Jordan in 2015.

The long list for the Translation category is also 11 titles long, chosen from 109 nominations. The nominations originated from 14 Arabic countries, mainly Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. History of Egypt in the middle ages by Stanley Lane-Poole is in the list. This English-to-Arabic text was translated by Ahmed Salem Salem of Egypt, and published by Al Dar Al Masriah Al Lubnaniah, Egypt in 2014.

The Development for Nations category has six titles in its long list, chosen from 138 nominations. The nominations are from 14 Arabic countries, mostly from Egypt, UAE, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Representative is Azmat al fikr al Arabi (Arab Thought Crisis and Metaphysical Questions), by Aziz El Hadadi of Morocco, published by Afrique Orient, Morocco, 2014.

There are a dozen books in the long list for the Arts and Literary Criticism Award for its tenth cycle, selected from 151 nominations. The nominees are from 12 Arabic-speaking countries, predominantly Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Iraq, in addition to nominees from three non-Arabic speaking countries; Australia, the UK and New Zealand. 

The list includes works covering a variety of topics, from studies in architecture and history to the arts, scientific research in linguistics and the novel. Al qudsi wal dunyawi fi al sard al Arabi (Sacred and earthly accounts in Arabic narrative) by Mustapha Ennahal of Morocco, published by Dar Bou Regreg of Morocco in 2014, is part of the list.

For the Literature category, 15 titles out of 270 nominations have made it to the long list. The nominations came from 19 Arabic-speaking countries, mainly Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, in addition to six non-Arab countries: Germany, Sweden, Norway, the UK, the Netherlands and the US.

Three titles were published by Dar Al Saqi of Lebanon:

1. Salatun libidayat al Saqee (A Prayer for the Beginning of Frost) by Lebanese poet Abbas Beydoun (2015)
2. Ziryab (a person's name) by Saudi Arabian novelist Maqbul al-Alawi (2014)
3. Bakhur Adani (Incense from Aden) by Yemeni novelist Ali Al-Muqri (2014)

A further three titles were published by Al Dar Al Masriah Al Lubnaniah of Egypt, which also has titles in the long list for Translation;

1. Al moriski al Akheer (The Last Moor), by Egyptian novelist Sobhi Moussa (2015)
2. Ma wara’a al kitaba (Beyond Writing) by Egyptian novelist Ibrahim Abdelmeguid (2014)
3. Yahdoth fee Baghdad (Happening in Baghdad) by Iraqi writer Rasool Mohammed Rasool (2014) 

The 12 books in the long list for the Children’s Literature category in its tenth cycle consists of eight children’s books and four for adolescents. 

The SZBA was established in memory of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of UAE for more than 30 years, and of his pioneering role in promoting national unity and development. It is presented every year to outstanding Arab writers, intellectuals, and publishers as well as young talents whose writing and translation in humanities have objectively enriched Arab scholarship and cultural, literary, and social life.

The independent cultural award is administered by the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, and valued at AED7 million.

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View winners of the award in past years