The shortlist for the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature 2024 was announced on Friday, August 30, 2024.
The Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature is a literary award for Arabic literature given to the best contemporary novel written in Arabic, but not available in English translation. The winning book is translated into English, and published by Hoopoe, American University in Cairo Press fiction imprint, and its author given a cash prize of $5,000. Some of the previous winners have been Fatma Qandil, Ahmed Taibaoui, Omaima Al-Khamis, Huzama Habayeb, Adel Esmat, Hassan Daoud, and Hammour Ziada.
This year’s panel of judges for 2024 is chaired by Sarah Enany, professor in the English Department of Cairo University and winner of the Banipal Prize for Literary Translation. She is joined by Ahmed Taibaoui, winner of the Best Arabic Novel Prize at the Sharjah International Book Fair in 2023 and the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2021; Kay Heikkinen, formerly at the University of Chicago, and winner of the Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation; Youssef Rakha, novelist, poet, and essayist; and Maysa Zaki, literary and theater critic with over thirty years of experience in the field. The shortlist they have announced includes:
- The Sky is Smoking Cigarettes (al-Sama’ tudakhin al-saga’ir), Wajdi al-Ahdal (Yemen)
- The Glass Woman (al-Sayyida al-zujajiya), Amr El-Adly (Egypt)
- The Scribe: Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (al-Warraq Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi), Hisham Eid (Egypt)
- My Name is Zayzafun (Ismi Zayzafun), Sausan Jamil Hasan (Syria)
- House of the Judge: The Journey of Qassim bin Yunis (Bayt al-qadi: masirat Qasim bin Yunis), Mahmoud Adel Taha (Egypt)
- Muted Microphone (Micrufun katim sawt), Mohammed Tarazi (Lebanon).
The winner will be announced on December 11, 2024, the anniversary of Naguib Mahfouz’s birth.
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