Sheikh Zayed Book Award announces shortlisted titles for Literature, Literary & Art Criticism categories

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA) has revealed the titles that have made the shortlist for the Literature and Literary & Art Criticism categories for the 13th edition of the award, following the Scientific Committee meeting last week.

The Literature shortlist consists of three titles out of 13 longlisted titles, while the Literary & Art Criticism shortlist consists of three out of nine titles selected in the longlist.

The shortlist for the Literature category comprises:

- Terter (ترتر, The Sequin Embroidery) by Iraqi novelist Nizar Abdelsattar, published by Nofal-Hachette Antoine, 2018.

- Ghawaso Al Ahqaf (غواصو الأحقاف, Divers of the Empty Quarter) by Saudi novelist Amal Al Faran, published by Jadawel Publishing, Translation & Distribution, 2016.

- The autobiography Al That Bayn Al Wujood Wal Eijad (الذات بين الوجود والإيجاد, The Self - between Existence and Creation) by Moroccan novelist Bensalem Himmich, published by Book Cultural Centre for Publishing & Distribution, 2018.

The shortlist for the Literary & Art Criticism category includes:

- Al Khetab Tholathy A Ab’aad: Derasat Fe Al Adab Al Mo’aser (الخطاب ثلاثي الأبعاد دراسات في الأدب العربي المعاصر, Three-dimensional Discourse in Contemporary Literature) by Syrian academic Dr Samar Al Dayyoub, published by Department of Culture – Sharjah, 2017

- Ketabat Al Qatl Fi Al Adab Al Arabi Al Qadeem (كتابة القتل في الأدب العربي القديم, Writing about Crime in Ancient Arabic Literature) by Tunisian academic Dr Amna Al Rumaili, published by Zeyneb Edition for Publishing & Distribution, 2018

- Al She’r Al ‘Arabi: Qasidat Al Nathr (الشعر العربي الحديث: قصيدة النثر, Contemporary Arabic Poetry - the prose) by Lebanese scholar Dr Charbel Dagher, published by Al Maaref Forum, 2018

The Literature category received the highest number of submissions for the sixth year in a row with 382 nominations, while the Literary & Art Criticism category received 151 nominations. The longlists for both categories were announced in November and December 2018.

Out of the 13 competing titles for Literature, the long list included three works published by Al Dar Al Masriah Al Lubnaniah, Cairo, Egypt; three novels published by Nofal-Hachette Antoine of Beirut, Lebanon; and two titles each by Jadawel Publishing, Translation & Distribution and Dar Al Adab Printing, Publishing & Distribution

Further announcements on shortlisted titles for the remaining categories will be made in the next few weeks.

Sultan Qaboos Awards for Culture, Arts and Literature winners for 2017 announced

The Sultan Qaboos Higher Center for Culture and Science (SQHCCS) has named this year's winners for the Sultan Qaboos Awards for Culture, Arts and Literature, the Oman News Agency has reported.

The Sultan Qaboos Awards for Culture, Arts and Literature is an annual award that is awarded every two years, alternating between Arab recipients in one year, and Omanis only the next year. In its sixth incarnation, the awards are devoted to Arabs in economic studies within culture and architectural design, as well as for arts and literary criticism within literature.

The award for economic studies in culture was given to Jalaluddin Ahmed Amin from Egypt, while Saad bin Abdul Rahman al-Bazai from KSA received the award for literary criticism. The award for architectural design in art was withheld as the nominees did not meet the standards for the award.

Habib bin Mohammed al-Riyami, Secretary General of SQHCCS said the awards indicate the level of cultural, artistic and literary life at the local and Arab levels. He shared that there were 26 nominees for the award for economic studies, 22 submitted for architectural design and 28 for literary criticism.

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.

Interested?

View winners of the award in past years 

Kitaab starts crowdfunding campaign

Source: Kitaab website.

Kitaab, which means “book” in many Asian languages, is moving to the next phase of its evolution with crowdfunding on Indiegogo. The literary project was founded in 2005 to empower and connect Asian writers with readers globally. Since then, it "has filled a major void in the online literary scene in Asia by creating a link-based information storehouse where the most important stories on Asian writers and writing were curated", says Zafar Anjum, its founder and a well-known author.

"Over the years, Kitaab has evolved into a much larger project that encompasses publishing and e-commerce to serve the same community of writers, readers, publishers and agents worldwide. Run by 15 voluntary editors who sit in different parts of the world, Kitaab provides a global writing and publishing platform to emerging and seasoned writers in Asia and abroad," he said. 

Kitaab began publishing in 2013, presenting original/translated contemporary literature in English and Asian languages. It is also getting recognised in the region, most recently as the media partner of the Hyderabad Literary Festival in India. 

"Two of Kitaab's titles were launched at this year's Singapore Literary Festival. Kitaab will publish three books by (Singapore) Cultural Medallion winner Isa Kamari in 2016, including the Malay writer's first novel written in English. Kitaab has also bought the Hindi/Urdu translation rights of Isa Kamari's pathbreaking Malay novel, Intercession," Anjum said. "We will be acquiring more Asian titles for translation." 

Intercession, published as Tawassul in Malay, explores the implications of cloning the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ).

Anjum hopes that the crowdfunding campaign will raise up to US$10,000 to help Kitaab to curate better content and provide an improved user experience. "Those who will support Kitaab in this first-ever fundraising campaign will be rewarded with various perks, ranging from thank you notes from editors to signed copies of books to specially designed tote bags and even mentions on the Kitaab website as a patron," he said. 

So far, nearly more than 1,300 people have supported Kitaab’s appeal on Facebook, Anjum said. "We seek your help and cooperation to make our maiden fundraising - our first in ten years - a success," he said. 

Interested?

Contribute to or share the details of the crowdfunding campaign

Read the WorkSmart Asia blog post on Anjum's book Startup Capitals
Read the Suroor Asia blog post on Anjum's book Iqbal