Sheikh Zayed Book Award announces shortlists for 19th edition

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA), organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), has unveiled the shortlists for its 19th edition, featuring outstanding works from around the world in the categories of Literature, Children’s Literature, Translation, Contribution to the Development of Nations, Literary and Art Criticism, Arab Culture in Other Languages, and Editing of Arabic Manuscripts.

The shortlist for the Literature category includes three works: The Sphinx by Ahmed Mourad (Egypt); Travels of the City of Clay Trilogy by Saud Alsanousi (Kuwait); and Hind or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Hoda Barakat (Lebanon/France).

For the Children’s Literature category, the shortlisted works are Maymouna and Her Crazy Ideas by Shireen Sabanegh (Jordan); The Phantom of Sabiba by Latifa Labsir (Morocco); and The Digital Fox by Hegra Elsawi (Egypt).

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Three works are shortlisted in the Translation category: Tausendundeine Nacht: Das Buch der Liebe (One Thousand and One Nights: The Book of Love), translated from Arabic to German by Claudia Ott (Germany); Orosius by Paulus Orosius, translated from Arabic to English by Marco Di Branco (Italy); and Le démon de la théorie: Littérature et sens commun (The Demon of Theory: Literature and Common Sense) by Antoine Compagnon, translated from French to Arabic by Hassan Outtaleb (Morocco).

The shortlist for the Literary and Art Criticism category consists of Food and Language: Cultural Excavations in Arab Heritage by Dr. Said Laouadi (Morocco); Poetry and Prophecy: Abu Tayeb as the Poet-Prophet by Dr. Rita Awad (Palestine); and Urbanistic Samarra: A Study of Architecture and Planning of an Abbasid City by Dr. Khaled Alsultany (Iraq).

The three works shortlisted for the Contribution to the Development of Nations category are The Right to Strive: Perspectives on Muslim Women’s Rights by Prof. Dr. Mohammed Bechari (UAE); The Philosophy of Recognition and Identity Politics: Criticism of the Cultural Approach to Arab-Islamic Culture by Housamedden Darwish (Syria/Germany); and Cities and Trade in Arab and Islamic Civilization by Prof. Dr. Majduddin Khemesh (Jordan).

In the Arab Culture in Other Languages category, the shortlist features Arabic Literary Culture in Southeast Asia in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries by Andrew Peacock (UK); The Rise of the Arabic Book by Beatrice Gruendler (Germany); and Geschichte des östlichen zagal: Dialektale arabische Strophendichtung aus dem Osten der arabischen Welt – von den Anfängen bis zum Ende der Mamlukenzeit (The History of Eastern Zajal: Arabic Poetry in Colloquial Dialects from the Eastern Arab World – From its Beginnings to the End of the Mamluk Era) by Hakan Özkan (Turkey).

Lastly, in the Editing of Arabic Manuscripts category, the shortlisted works are News of Women by Rasheed Alkhayoun (Iraq/UK); Interpretation of the Mu’allaqat Poems by Saleh Aljassar (Saudi Arabia); and Alkawakib Alsayaara fi Tartib Alziyara by Dr. Ahmed Gomaa Abdelhamid (Egypt).

The Award’s Scientific Committee approved the shortlists during a meeting chaired by Dr. Ali bin Tamim, Chairman of the ALC and Secretary-General of the SZBA, and attended by committee members Saeed Hamdan Al Tunaiji, Executive Director of the ALC; Juergen Boos (Germany); Dr. Nadia El Cheikh (Lebanon); and Mustafa Al-Slaiman (Jordan). New members of the committee this year include Dr. Khaled Al-Masri (Jordan/USA), Dr. Reem Bassiouney (Egypt), Dr. Moneera Al-Ghadeer (Saudi Arabia), and Dr. Mehmet Hakki Suçin (Turkey), alongside Abdulrahman Al Naqbi, Director of the ALC’s Literary Awards Department.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award decided to withhold the Award from the Young Author and Publishing and Technology categories for this edition. Across the other seven categories, the Award received over 4,000 nominations from 75 countries, including 20 Arab nations. Moreover, this year saw submissions from five countries participating for the first time – Albania, Bolivia, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Mali – further underscoring the global reach and prestige of the award.