Al-Ghathami named Sheikh Zayed Cultural Personality of the Year

Author and critic Dr Abdullah Al-Ghathami has been awarded the Cultural Personality of the Year prize for the 16th edition of the Sheikh Zayed Book Awards.

The Saudi professor of criticism and theory at the Faculty of Arts Department of the Arabic Language at King Saud University was recognised for his “outstanding contributions” to modern Arabic literary theory and cultural criticism.

The announcement was made at a prize-giving ceremony at the Abu Dhabi Louvre, where Al-Ghathami was celebrated alongside the other Sheikh Zayed Award winners. In addition to his lectures and talks, he has authored more than 600 academic articles and books. 

The judging panel highlighted Al-Ghathami’s influence in the fields of poetry, critical thinking and women’s studies, and credited him with largely introducing cultural criticism to the Arab world. In particular, he was praised for his work emphasising the importance of social, economic and political contexts in which language, literature and cultural phenomena are produced and consumed.

Speaking to The Bookseller at the Abu Dhabi Book Fair, he said the prize “emphasises and celebrates multiculturalism”.

“If you look at the [previous] winners, they’re cross generations and are interdisciplinary,” he said. “The prize takes a wide look at the future, by celebrating the new author, the well-established and less established author. The prize puts the Arabic word and Orientalism in the spotlight, and [platforms] its writers’ achievements. I think this is the meaning of the prize – to show what it can achieve in the Arabic culture, and in the world as a whole.”