ArabLit Story Prize 2019 judges unveiled.

The ArabLit Story Prize 2019 judges Nariman Youssef, Jana Elhassan, and Adam Talib were unveiled on March 1, 2019.

In 2018, our friends at Arablit.com introduced a new award for the best short stories, in any genre, newly translated from Arabic into English they called the ArabLit Story Prize. The first edition of the prize judged by Maan Abu Taleb, Thoraya El Rayyes, and Ruqaya Izzidien would be won by Egyptian writer Mohammad Abdelnabi for Our Story translated by Robin Moger.

The second year of the innovative award is upon us with the judges of this new cycle being announced. They are;

Nariman Youssef: author of Tahrir – 18 Days of Grace (Summer of Unrest series). Her translations include Inaam Kachachi’s The American Granddaughter, Donia Kamal’s Cigarette No. 7, and lyrics for Palestine Underground, a Boiler Room documentary. She manages a translation team at the British Library.

Jana Elhassan: novelist and journalist. Her first novel, Forbidden Desires, was published in 2009 and won the Simon Hayek Prize. Her second novel Me, She and the Other Women was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, as was her third, The 99th Floor. The latter was translated into English by Michelle Hartman.

Adam Talib: translator of Fadi Azzam’s Sarmada, Khairy Shalaby’s The Hashish Waiter, and Mekkawi Said’s Cairo Swan Song. He also co-translated (with Katharine Halls) Raja Alem’s The Dove’s Necklace, for which he was a co-winner of the 2017 Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation. He teaches Arabic literature at Durham University.

The prize organisers have also announced changes to the rules. You can read the new terms and conditions here.