Sheikh Zayed Book Award | |
---|---|
Awarded for | Arab writers, intellectuals, publishers |
Date | annual |
Country | United Arab Emirates |
First awarded | 2007 |
Website | www |
The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is a literary award begun in the UAE. [1] It is presented yearly to "Arab writers, intellectuals, publishers as well as young talent whose writings and translations of humanities have scholarly and objectively enriched Arab cultural, literary and social life." [2] The first award was in 2007. The total value of the prizes is Dhs. 7,000,000 making it one of the richest literary awards in the world.
Often referred to “the Arab World’s Nobel Prize”, [3] the Award presents a range of annual prizes, such as ‘Literature’, ‘Translation’, ‘Arabic Culture in Other Languages’, and ‘Cultural Personality of the Year’.
The "Cultural Person of the Year" is the premier category which honours a prominent Arab or international figure (or organisation) who has contributed to the advancement of Arabic culture. It bestows an award of one million Dirhams (around $300,000) while the other categories receive around $200,000 each. [4]
Beginning with 2013 awards, a new category was added called "Arabic Culture in Other Languages", "to honor best written works in Chinese, German and English languages on the subject of the Arabic civilization and culture including novels, short stories, poems, biographies, history and arts." [5] In addition a number of other categories were merged, created or redefined. [6] [7]
In 2018, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award launched a translation grant, to encourage the translation of Arabic literature into other languages. [8] The grant is open year-round to publishers and translators around the world to publish shortlisted or award-winning literary works from the Award’s Literature and Young Author prize categories.
In 2021, German philosopher Jürgen Habermas declined his Zayed Book Award, citing the UAE's political system (a repressive non-democracy). [9] [10] A media debate ensued with some German commentators arguing that he should not have renounced the award. [11] [12]
The award was established in memory of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the principal architect of United Arab Emirates, the authoritarian ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the UAE for over 30 years (1971–2004).
2007 [13]
2009 [13]
2011 [13]
2015 [27]
2016 [31]
2017 [33]
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023 [36]
2024 [37]
Denys Johnson-Davies was an eminent Arabic-to-English literary translator who translated, inter alia, several works by Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz, Sudanese author Tayeb Salih, Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish and Syrian author Zakaria Tamer.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), also known as "the Arabic Booker," is regarded as the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world.
Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh is the Cultural Adviser to the President of the UAE and the Chancellor of UAE University. He has been active in government service in the United Arab Emirates since its formation in 1971, and with the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi since 1968.
Ezzat El Kamhawi is an Egyptian novelist and journalist. In December 2012, El Kamhawi was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for his novel House of the Wolf. In June 2022 he was awarded the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press for his article "Suspicious architecture: The obsession with grand buildings and wide streets".
Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) is an 11-day international book fair held annually in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It is one of the world's largest book fairs, and it has over 400 literary events.
Salma Khadra Jayyusi was a Palestinian poet, writer, translator and anthologist. She was the founder and director of the Project of Translation from Arabic (PROTA), which aims to provide translation of Arabic literature into English.
Charbel Dagher is a Lebanese professor at the University of Balamand, Koura, Lebanon. He has been an active and prominent voice on the Arab cultural scene, mainly in the fields of poetry, Arabic language, and Arab and Islamic arts. He is a Poet, writer and story-writer in both Arabic and French.
Affaf Tobbala is an Egyptian television documentary director and producer and an author, primarily of children's literature. Tobbala has been nominated for and received a number of literary awards in Egypt and abroad. Her 2006 book, Sika and Mokka, received the 2007 Suzan Mubarak Prize for Children's Literature and was included on the 2010 International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) List of Honor.
Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press is a publishing house based in Doha, Qatar. The press was initially managed by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC and was founded as Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP) in 2008 until its transition into HBKU Press in 2015. HBKU Press is part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University which is under the wider community of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. It publishes titles that serve both an international audience as well as the larger Arab community publishing fiction, non-fiction, young adult and children's literature, and academic titles. They highlight local Middle Eastern and Qatari narratives and also translate books from other foreign languages into Arabic.
Hussain Al Mutawaa is a Kuwaiti writer, poet, literary critic and a photographer who was born in 1989. He published two novels and two short stories. In 2019, his short story "I Dream of Being a Cement Mixer" won Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Child Literature and which was translated into English, French, Ukrainian and Italian. Before turning to stories and novels, Al Mutawaa started his literary career in literature as a poet in 2009.
Taghreed Najjar is a Palestinian-Jordanian writer and publisher. She is the writer of over 50 Arabic children and young adults books. Some of her books were translated and published in different languages including English, Swedish, Turkish and French. She is the founder of Al Salwa Publishing House. Over the years, Al Najjar won several literary awards and in 2017 she was shortlisted for the Etisalat Children's Literature Award and the Sheikh Zayed Award. She is a member of the Jordanian Writer's Association.
Sonia Nimr is a Palestinian writer, storyteller, translator, ethnographer and academic. She writes for children and youth in Arabic and English, and relates folk-tales in colloquial Arabic. She is the winner of the 2014 Etisalat Award for Arabic Children's Literature for Best Young Adult Book for her book Extraordinary Journeys to Unknown Places. Nimr is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University.
Maryam Saqer Al Qasimi is an Emirati writer for children and young adult. She published eight children short stories. Her short story "Where Did the Letters Disappear?" won the Sharjah Children's Book Award in the category of young readers in English language, 2018. Later, the story was adapted into a musical play.
Nawal Nasrallah is a U.S.-based Iraqi food writer, food historian, English literature scholar, and translator from Arabic into English. She is best known for her cookbook featuring Iraqi cuisine, entitled Delights from the Garden of Eden, and for editions of medieval Arabic cookbooks, including Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchens, an annotated translation of the tenth-century, Abbasid-era cookbook Kitab al-Tabikh by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq. She has won numerous awards for her writing and her translations.
Mohamed Ait Mihoub, a Tunisian writer, translator, and professor, was born in 1968. He published many books including “Roses and Ash” and “The Romantic Man” which was a translation of Georges Gusdorf’s book “L’homme Romantique”. He won several awards including the Translation Award of Sheikh Zayed Book Award in 2020.
Lateefa Buti is a Kuwaiti writer. She has published many books for children including Hatless, which won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in 2017 in the children's literature category, and was translated into English by Nancy Roberts.
Samar George Al Dayyoub is a Syrian critic, writer, and professor of Arabic, born in 1970. She received her higher education from Al-Baath University in Homs from 1993 to 2002. Al Dayyoub has been a member of both Arab Writers Union and Arab Union for Internet Writers since 2015. She has published several books on Arabic literary criticism, a notable example is ‘Al Khetab Tholathy A Ab’aad: Derasat Fe Al Adab Al Mo’aser’ which was nominated for 13th edition of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in the ‘Literary & Art Criticism’ category. Al Dayyoub was also awarded the 2016 Merit prize of the ‘Naji Naaman Literary Prizes’ and the 2016 State Award from the Syrian Ministry of Culture.
Mohamed Salahuddin Abdel-Sameeh Fadl was an Egyptian academic, writer, and translator from Kafr el Sheikh. He has held many educational and non-educational positions in Egypt and abroad. He worked as a medic at the Cairo University, the Al-Azhar University, the Ain Shams University in Egypt, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and the College of Mexico in Spain, as well as the University of Sana'a in Yemen and Bahrain. Other non-educational positions held by Dr. Fadl include editing the Journal of the Egyptian Institute of Islamic Studies in Madrid, heading the Department of Arabic at Ain Shams University, other contributions to the Campus Council, and other academic contributions.
Shaker Abdel Hamid Suleiman was the Egyptian Minister of Culture from 2011 to 2017. He served as Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Culture, then Minister of Culture at the Ministry of Kamal al-Ganzuri in December 2011. He was also a Professor of Creative Psychology at The Egyptian Academy of Arts.
The Egyptian-Lebanese House is an Egyptian publishing house that was established in 1985 AD.
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