International Prize for Arabic Fiction

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The International Prize for Arabic Fiction ( English International Prize for Arabic Fiction , Arabic الجائزة العالمية للرواية العربية, DMG al-Ǧāʾiza al-ʿālamiyya li-r-riwāya al-ʿarabiyya ) is a book prize that was first awarded in 2008.

organization

The Authority for Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi finances and organizes the award ceremony. It has appointed an advisory board (Board of Trustees) made up of personalities from the Arab world who selects the annually changing members of the five-person jury . The jury will first draw up a long list of around 16 works from the submissions for the award year. A shortlist of six titles is selected from this, from which the winning title is ultimately determined. In 2011 there was a shared first prize. The award will be presented at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair .

The organization of the Booker Prize in London contributed to the initial establishment of the prize, as well as supporting it in the following years, but, as both organizations emphasize, the prize has no direct connection to the Man Booker Prize . Nevertheless, the name Arabian Booker Prize has established itself in the reporting .

The award includes prize money of USD 50,000 (as of 2020) and a contract to translate the work into English. The five other shortlisted authors will also receive prize money, each of which was USD 10,000 in 2020. Since the actual aim of the competition is to increase international attention for the modern Arabic novel, the other authors on the longlist will also be supported in marketing and translation.

The award has a high reputation among the reading public, "the cooperation with a foreign institution convinces the public". The price is considered by publishers in the Arab world as the only one that is sure to increase sales. Even the nomination on the longlist can be marketed as an award.

On the advisory board sat u. a. the writers Ahdaf Soueif and Joumana Haddad , his spokesman was initially Jonathan Taylor, who also chaired the Booker Prize Advisory Board. The German translator Hartmut Fähndrich was also represented on the jury once in 2009 .

Excellent books

Mohammed Achaari and Raja Alem at the London Literature Festival 2011

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mona Naggar : The Book of the Hour , NZZ , May 3, 2014, p. 22
  2. ↑ Aissaoui wins the most important Arab literary prize. In: ORF.at . April 14, 2020, accessed April 14, 2020 .