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Two Palestinian authors shortlisted for International Prize for Arabic Fiction
The shortlist for the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), worth $50,000 (£40,000), has been announced featuring two Palestinian authors alongside writers from Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
The 2011 joint winner Raja Alem (Saudi Arabia) is shortlisted again for Bahbel: Makkah Multiverse (Dar Tanweer – Lebanon) while Syrian author Rima Bali is recognised for Suleima’s Ring (Tanmia Publishing).
The two Palestinian authors nominated are Osama Al-Eissa for The Seventh Heaven of Jerusalem (Al-Mutawassit) and Basim Khandaqji for A Mask, the Colour of the Sky (Dar al-Adab). Khandaqji is currently in an Israeli prison.
Gambling on the Honour of Lady Mitsy (Dar Dawen) by Egyptian writer Ahmed Al-Morsi is also recognised alongside The Mosaicist (Masciliana) by Eissa Nasiri from Morocco.
The shortlist was revealed at a press conference on Wednesday (14th February) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by this year’s chair of judges Syrian writer Nabil Suleiman.
Fellow judges also attended including Palestinian writer, researcher and academic Sonia Nimr, Czech academic František Ondráš, Egyptian critic and journalist Mohamed Shoair, and Sudanese writer Hammour Ziada as well as IPAF’s chair of trustees Yasir Suleiman and prize administrator Fleur Montanaro.
The shortlisted novelists – two women and four men – range in age from 31 to 60, across five countries and “each with distinctive narrative styles, collectively explore a remarkably varied range of vital and timely themes”, organisers said.
IPAF aims to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage the readership of high-quality Arabic literature internationally through the translation and publication of the novels in other major languages. Each of the six shortlisted finalists receives $10,000 (£9,000), with a further $50,000 (£40,000) going to the winner.
Professor Yasir Suleiman, chair of the board of trustees, said: "Giving us a nuanced sense of place in which a varied tapestry of humanity is reflected, the novels of the shortlist for this year dig deep into the past to excavate the present.
"This results in haunting narratives that weave their stories from fracture, aided by the resurrection of memories of a vanishing past and the pursuit of hope dashed by inevitable oblivion. Through all of this we find ourselves in the Mecca of bygone years, the Old City of Jerusalem of tormented present, and in the city of Aleppo in which the scars of the recent past are indelibly marked on the bodies of its people in their rich demography. And this is the first time in the history of the prize that a novel from (literally) behind the walls of an Israeli jail reaches out to readers on the other side."
Nabil Suleiman, chair of the 2024 judges, said: “With passion and perception, the novels engage with the wars, exiles and uprisings endured by the Arab world at the current moment. Their rich creative worlds are not limited to their localities but span the globe, highlighting common struggles.”
The winner will be announced on 28th April 2024 at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi and streamed online.
