Longlist Announced for International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2012

www.arabicfiction.org

The longlist of 13 novels in contention for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2012 is announced today, Thursday 10 November 2011. The contenders for the leading literary prize were selected from 101 entries from 15 countries published in the last 12 months.

The longlisted authors come from seven countries, with four authors a piece from Lebanon and Egypt. Syria, Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia and Jordan are each represented by one author. This year a number of the longlisted novels deal with the theme of the Lebanese war, whilst other common themes include displacement – both for expatriate Arabs and those who have lost loved ones in childhood – and the challenge of rediscovering one’s roots and identity.

Youssef Ziedan, who won the Prize in 2009 with Azazel, makes it onto this year’s longlist with The Nabatean. He is joined by three other previously shortlisted authors: Jabbour Douaihy (June Rain, 2008); Habib Selmi (The Scents of Marie-Claire, 2009) and Rabee Jaber (America, 2010). Ezzedine Choukri Fishere was longlisted for the Prize in 2009 for Intensive Care.

These books were selected by a panel of five specialists in the field of Arabic literature. The judges’ names will be announced in Cairo on Wednesday 7 December 2011, at the same time as the 2012 shortlist. 

The 2012 longlist, with author names in alphabetical order, is as follows:

Title	Author	Nationality	Publisher
Sarmada	Fadi Azzam	Syria	Thaqafa
Paving the Sea	Rashid al-Daif	Lebanon	Riyad al-Rayyes
The Vagrant	Jabbour Douaihy	Lebanon	Dar al-Nhar
Embrace on Brooklyn Bridge	Ezzedine Choukri Fishere	Egypt	Dar al-Ain
The Druze of Belgrade	Rabee Jaber	Lebanon	Al-Markez al-Thaqafi al-Arabi
The Unemployed	Nasr Iraq	Egypt	Al-Dar al-Masriya al-Lubnaniya
Toy of Fire	Bashir Mufti	Algeria	Al-Ikhtilef
Under the Copenhagen Sky	Hawra al-Nadawi	Iraq/Denmark	Dar al-Saqi
Suitcases of Memory	Sharbel Qatan	Lebanon	Naufel
Nocturnal Creatures of Sadness	Mohamed al-Refai	Egypt	Dar Merit
The Women of al-Basatin	Habib Selmi	Tunisia	Dar al-Adab
The Amazing Journey of Khair al-Din ibn Zard	Ibrahim al-Zaarur	Jordan	Dar Fada'at
The Nabatean	Youssef Ziedan	Egypt	Dar al-Shorouq

The 2012 Chair of Judges commented on the longlist: “The fifth cycle of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction takes place in exceptional circumstances, with many Arab uprisings against despotic regimes which have been entrenched in most regions of the Arab world for long decades. Without actually asserting that the novels nominated for this prize cycle directly prophesy the Arab Spring, we can say that many of them paint a picture of the stifling conditions prevalent before the explosion of uprisings. They take the reader into the underground world of the secret police and portray the thirst for freedom of many of their heroes and secondary characters, at the same time exposing the opportunism of those who co-operate with those secret forces.”

The Prize, which celebrates its fifth anniversary in 2012, has become a leading cultural event in the Arab world. Lauded as the ‘foremost literary award for writing in Arabic’ (The National) and ‘the yardstick of literary excellence’ (The Times), it is the first of its kind in the Arab world in its commitment to independence, transparency and integrity. Its aim is to celebrate the very best of contemporary Arabic fiction and encourage wider international readership of Arabic literature through translation.

In the past five years the Prize has secured English translations for all of its winners:  Bahaa Taher (2008), Youssef Ziedan (2009), Abdo Khal (2010) and joint winners Mohammed Achaari and Raja Alem (2011). Taher’s Sunset Oasis was translated into English by Sceptre (an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton) in 2009 and has gone on to be translated into at least eight languages worldwide. Ziedan’s Azazel will be published in the UK by Atlantic Books in April 2012, and Abdo Khal and Mohammed Achaari’s books will also be published in 2012, by the Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. Raja Alem’s The Doves’ Necklace has recently secured an English language publisher, with The Overlook Press in America and Duckworth Books  in the UK. All of the winning titles, and a significant number of shortlisted and longlisted books have been translated internationally in South America, Europe and Asia.

JThe International Prize for Arabic Fiction is awarded for prose fiction in Arabic and each of the six shortlisted finalists receives $10,000, with a further $50,000 going to the winner.  It was launched in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in April 2007, and is supported by the Booker Prize Foundation and the Emirates Foundation for Philanthropy.

The winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2012 will be announced at an awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday 27 March 2012, on the eve of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.

For further information about the Prize - www.arabicfiction.org