Shortlists unveiled for Sheikh Zayed Book Award after record-breaking 3,000 entries

The shortlists have been unveiled for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, which has received a record-breaking 3,000 entries from 55 countries—an increase of 28% over last year.  

The award is dedicated to Arab literature and culture, with prize money of 750,000 UAE dirhams (£155,000). The winners will be announced in late April and awarded in a special ceremony at the Louvre Abu Dhabi on 24th May, following two years of virtual ceremonies. The Cultural Personality of the Year will receive a prize of AED 1m (£206,500). Shortlisted titles in the children’s books and literature categories will also be entitled for translation funding through the Award’s Translation Grant. 

The award has announced shortlists for six of its nine categories, with Ezzat el Kamhawi, Meryem Sebti, Nawal Nasrallah and Maria Daadoush all featuring (see full shortlistings below). Seven different languages are represented—Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian. 

In the literature category is Emirati poet and painter Maisoon Saqer whose book Maq’ha Reesh, Ain Ala Massr (Eye On Egypt: Reesh Café published by Nahdet Misr Publishing) centres on a legendary cafe in Cairo at the heart of Egypt’s 20th-century political, social and cultural life.  

She is up against Moroccan author and academic Said Bengrad with her work Wa Tahmelany Hayraty Wa Dh’anony. Seerat Altakween (Composition Biography: Thoughts and Confusion Carry Me, published by Le Centre Culturel Du Livre) which presents an intimate biography of the generation that experienced Moroccan independence.  

Egyptian novelist Ezzat el Kamhawi, who was shortlisted in 2018 and 2021, is nominated for his Covid-era novel, Ghorbat Al Manazil (Strangers at Home, published by Al Dar Al Masriah Al Lubnaniah), set in an apartment building where the residents are confined.  

The Children’s Literature shortlist features Syrian author Maria Daadoush whose previous books, The Fly Flew Over the Pond and Diary of a Martian Kid, have been translated in English. She is shortlisted for Loghz al Kora al Zujajiya (The Mystery of the Glass Ball, published by Dar Al-Saqi). Previously shortlisted Moroccan writer Raja Mellah is nominated for Maw’idi maa al Noor (My Date with the Light, published by Al Mu’allif), about a girl born with a rare disease who is determined to reach her dreams, and Syrian writer Bayan Al-Safadi is competing with her collection of poetic tales, Shams Tadhak (A Laughing Sun, published by Dar Al Banan).  

The shortlists in full: 

Literature:  

• Ghorbat Al Manazil (Strangers at Home) by Ezzat el Kamhawi (Egypt), published by Al Dar Al Masriah Al Lubnaniah in 2021
• Wa Tahmelany Hayraty Wa Dh’anony. Seerat Altakween (Composition Biography: Thoughts and Confusion Carry Me) by Said Bengrad (Morocco), published by Le Centre Culturel Du Livre in 2021
• Maq’ha Reesh, Ain Ala Massr (Eye On Egypt: Reesh Cafe) by Maisoon Saqer (UAE), published by Nahdet Misr Publishing (Egypt) in 2021

Children’s literature: 

• Shams Tadhak (A Laughing Sun) by Bayan Al-Safadi (Syria), published by Dar Al Banan in 2020
• Loghz al Kora al Zujajiya (The Mystery of the Glass Ball) by Maria Daadoush (Syria), published by Dar Al-Saqi in 2021
• Maw’idi maa al Noor (My Date with the Light) by Raja Mellah (Morocco), published by Al Mu’allif in 2021

Young Author:  

• Al Kaa’in al Balaghi al Lugha wal Aaql wal Istita’a fi Kitab ‘Al Bayan wal Tabyeen (Rhetorical Object: Language, Reason, and Ability in the Book ‘Al-Bayan wal-Tabyeen’) by Mustafa Rajwan (Morocco), published by Dar Kunouz Al Maarifa in 2021
• Al Badawa fi al She’er al Arabi al Qadeem (Bedouinism in Ancient Arabic Poetry) by Dr Mohamed Al-Maztouri (Tunisia), issued by the Faculty of Literature, Arts and Humanities at Manouba University and the GLD Foundation (Al-Atrash Complex for Specialised Books) in 2021
• Al Hikaya al Shaabiya al Saudia al Maktooba bil Fus’ha: Dirasa fi al Muta’aliyat al Nasiya (Saudi Folk Tales Written in Fus’ha: A Study of Textual Transcendence) by Manal Salem Al-Qathami (Saudi Arabia), issued by the Arab Diffusion Foundation in 2021

Arabic Culture in Other Languages:  

• Revealed Sciences: The Natural Sciences in Islam in Seventeenth-Century Morocco, by Justin K Stearns (USA), issued by Cambridge University Press in 2021
• The Arabian Nights in Contemporary World Cultures: Global Commodification, Translation, and the Culture Industry, by Dr Muhsin J Al-Musawi (Iraq/USA), issued by Cambridge University Press (UK) in 2021
• Avicenne - Prophétie et gouvernement du monde (Avicenne - Prophesy and World Governance), by Meryem Sebti (France), issued by Editions du Cerf in 2021
• L’Alhambra: à la croisée des histoires (The Alhambra: at the Crossroads of Histories), by Edhem Eldem (Turkey), issued by Les Belles Lettres, 2021
• Die Deutschen und der Orient. Faszination, Verachtung und die Widersprüche der Aufklärung (Germans and the Orient: Fascination, Contempt and the Contradictions of the Enlightenment), by Joseph Croitoru (Germany), issued by Carl Hanser Verlag in 2018
• El perfume de la existencia: Sufismo y no-dualidad en Ibn Arabi de Murcia (The Perfume of Existence: Sufism and Non-duality in Ibn Arabi de Murcia), by Fernando Mora (Spain), issued by Almuzara in 2019
• Surrealismi Arabi 1938-1970: Il Surrealismo e la letteratura araba in Egitto, Siria e Libano (Arabic Surrealism 1938-1970: Surrealism and Arabic Literature in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon), by Arturo Monaco (Italy), issued by Istituto per l’Oriente C. A. Nallino in 2020
• Этимологический словарь древнеарабской лексики (на материале избранных текстов доисламской поэзии (Etymological Dictionary of Ancient Arabic (Based on the Material of Selected Texts of Pre-Islamic Poetry). Issue III, by Anna Belova (Russia), issued by Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2016.

Translation:  

• Ratha’il al Maarifa: Bahth fi al Ahkaam al Akhlaqiya al Fikriya’ (Les Vices du savoir: Essai d’éthique intellectuelle) authored by Pascal Engel, translated from French to Arabic by Dr Kassem Almekdad (Syria), and published by Ninawa Studies Publishing & Distribution in 2021
• ‘Fadaalat al Ikhwan fi Tayibat al Ta’aam wal Alwan’ (Best of Delectable Foods and Dishes from Al-Andalus and Al-Maghrib: A Cookbook by 13th Century Andalusi Scholar Ibn Razin Al-Tujibi, 1227–1293), authored by Ibn Razin Al-Tajibi, translated from Arabic to English by Nawal Nasrallah (Iraq/USA), and published by Brill Publishing in 2021
• ‘Nash’at al Insaniyat Einda al Muslimeen wa fi al Gharb al Maseehi’ (The Rise of Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West), authored by George Makdisi and originally published by Edinburgh University Press in 1990, translated from English to Arabic by Dr Ahmed Aladawi (Egypt), and published by Madarat for Research and Publishing in 2021

Publishing and Technology:  

• Internationale Jugendbibliothek (library), Germany
• Bibliotheca Alexandrina (library), Egypt
• Sindbad (publisher), France