Basim Khandaqji’s novel A Mask, the Colour of the Sky is the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2024 winner. The announcement was made on Sunday, April 28, 2024.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is the most prestigious literary prize in the Arab world. The prize worth US$50,000 aims to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage the readership of high-quality Arabic literature internationally through the translation and publication of winning and shortlisted novels in other major languages. Previous winners include Bahaa Taher (2008), Yusuf Zeydan (2009), Abdo Khal (2010), Mohammed Achaari (2011), Rabee Jaber (2012), Saud Alsanousi (2013), Ahmed Saadawi (2014), Shukri Mabkhout (2015), Rabai al-Madhoun (2016), Mohammed Hasan Alwan (2017), Ibrahim Nasrallah (2018), Hoda Barakat (2019), and Mohamed Alnaas (2022).
Syrian writer Nabil Suleiman chairs the jury for 2024 alongside Palestinian writer, researcher, and academic Sonia Nimr, Czech academic František Ondráš, Egyptian critic and journalist Mohamed Shoair, and Sudanese writer and journalist Hammour Ziada. From the 133 submissions published in Arabic between July 2022 and June 2023, the longlist was revealed on Thursday, December 14 before the shortlist was made public on February 14.
On Sunday, the winner was announced to be A Mask, the Colour of the Sky, by Palestinian writer Basim Khandaqji published by Dar al-Adab.
Nabil Suleiman, Chair of the 2024 Judges, said: “A Mask, the Colour of the Sky fuses the personal with the political in innovative ways. It ventures into experimenting with new narrative forms to explore three types of consciousness: that of the self, the Other, and the world. It dissects a complex, bitter reality of family fragmentation, displacement, genocide, and racism. The strands of history, myth, and the present day are delicately woven together in a narrative that pulses with compassion in the face of dehumanisation, and is stirred by a desire for freedom from oppression, both at an individual and societal level. A Mask, the Colour of the Sky declares love and friendship as central to human identity above all other affiliations.
Read an interview with Basim Khandaqji by clicking here.
Watch the ceremony, in Arabic, in full below ;
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