Abu Dhabi (Al Ittihad)
Today, Wednesday, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction announced the short-listed novels in its sixteenth session, which are “Mina” by Al-Siddiq Haj Ahmed, “The Stone of Happiness” by Azhar Zarzis, “Qurena Eduardo Concerto” by Najwa Bin Shatwan, and “Days of the Rising Sun.” by Miral Al-Tahawy, “The Higher Horizon” by Fatima Abdel-Hamid, and “Al-Qafir’s Westernization” by Zahran Al-Qasimi.
The short list was announced in a press conference held virtually, where Muhammad al-Ash’ari, the head of the judging committee, revealed the titles nominated for the list. , an Omani writer and academic, Fadila Al-Farouq, an Algerian novelist, researcher and journalist, Yassine Adnan, member of the Board of Trustees, and Flor Montanaro, coordinator of the award.
Each of the six short-listed candidates will receive $10,000, and the prize winner will receive an additional $50,000. The award-winning novel will be announced at a ceremony organized in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, May 21, 2023.
The short list for the sixteenth International Prize for Arabic Fiction includes three female writers and three writers from six Arab countries, whose novels are characterized by diversity in content and methods and address current and important issues.
The current edition of the award witnessed the arrival of two writers who had previously reached the short list, namely Najwa Bin Shatwan (for “Slave Cages” in 2017) and Miral Al-Tahawy (for “Brooklyn Heights” in 2011). Azhar Zarzis also reached the long list in 2020 for his novel “Sleeping in the Cherry Field”, while three writers were nominated for the final stages for the first time, and they are: Al-Siddiq Haj Ahmed, Fatima Abdel-Hamid, and Zahran Al-Qasimi.
Content diversity
Muhammad Al-Ash’ari, Chairman of the Jury, said: The short list for this year (2023) is characterized by a great diversity of contents, from the disintegration of post-war society and sectarian conflicts, and the burden of this disintegration on childhood and simple people, as in the novel “The Stone of Happiness”, to The myth of water and its manifestations in people’s memory and their collective imagination, as in the novel “The Quaghirah of the Quaker”. And from the worlds of migration and human fluctuations between the troubles of the place of origin and the violence of the place of displacement, as in the novel “Days of the Rising Sun”, to the human struggle with injustice and political tyranny that does not close the door of the present hell until the door of the future hell opens, as in the novel “Eduardo Cyrena’s Concerto”. And from the horrors of the encounter with death and love and with their permanent intersections, as in the novel “The Higher Horizon”, to the desert worlds between southern Algeria and northern Mali, when drought, famine and the tribal situation turn them into a mirror that reflects the desert’s might and fragility at the same time, as in the novel “Manna”. With this diversity of contents, the reader will meet in these novels all the manifestations of the modern Arabic novel, in its constructions, narrative characteristics, methods, and multiplicity of voices and languages.
For his part, Yasser Suleiman, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, said: This list is distinguished by its gender diversity, and the emergence of non-dedicated fictional voices on the Arab literary scene, which indicates the vitality of Arab cultural life despite all the obstacles it faces.
The winning novel of the sixteenth session of the award will be announced at a ceremony to be held in Abu Dhabi, Sunday, May 21, and broadcast virtually.
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