Moroccan novelist Bensalem Himmich has made the Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2019 shortlist announced on February 4, 2019.
The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is one of the best-funded prizes presented yearly to those whose writings and translations of humanities have scholarly and objectively enriched Arab cultural, literary and social life. Previous winners of the award include Ibrahim Abdelmeguid, Abbas Beydoun, Osama Alaysa, and Abdel Rasheed Mahmoudi.
On November 26, the longlist for those in the running for this year’s awards were announced and there were three African writers who made the cut. They were Egyptian writer Amro Al Adly, Ahmed Al Shahawi and Moroccan novelist Bensalem Himmich.
The next stage in the competition was upon us as the shortlist was announced yesterday. Those still in the running for one of the richest prizes in writing are;
- Al Zaat: Bayn Al Wujood Wal Eijad (The Self: Between Existence and Creation) by Moroccan novelist Bensalem Himmich, published by Book Cultural Centre for Publishing & Distribution, 2018.
- Terter (Sequin Embroidery) by Iraqi novelist Nizar Abdelsattar, published by Nofal- Hachette Antoine, 2018.
- Ghawaso Al Ahqaf (Divers of the Empty Quarter) by Saudi novelist Amal Al Faran, published by Jadawel Publishing, Translation & Distribution, 2016.
Bensalem Himmich, who has previously won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, is a novelist, poet and philosopher who teaches at the Mohammed V University, Rabat in Morocco.
The winner will officially receive their award at an award ceremony at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair in May 2019.
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