Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2024 longlists announced.

The longlists for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2024 in literature, Children’s Literature, Young Author and Translation were announced on November 17 and 28, 2024.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is presented to Arab writers, intellectuals, and publishers as well as young talent whose writings and translations of humanities have scholarly and objectively enriched Arab cultural, literary, and social life. The categories handed out are Cultural Personality of the Year, Children’s Literature, Young Author, Contribution to the Development of Nations, Translation, Literature, Literary and Art Criticism, Arab Culture in Other Languages, and Publishing and Technology.  The award winners get a gold medal, a certificate of merit, and 750,000 dirhams.

The 2023 edition saw 4240 entries in total, a record for the award, with the longlists announced in a staggered manner. The writers from Africa who made the cut in the various categories are;

Literature (adult)

• Utla fi Hay al-Noor (Holiday in Al Noor District) by Elhabib ElSelmi from Tunisia, published by Dar Al Adab Publishing and Distribution in 2023.
• Laylat Hadiqat al-Shitaa (Winter Garden Night) by Hassouna ElMosbahi from Tunisia, published by Editions Arabesques in 2023.
• Al Halwani. Thulathiyat al-Fatimiyeen (Al Halwani: The Fatimid Trilogy) by Reem Bassiouney from Egypt, published by Nahdet Misr Publishing, Printing and Distribution in 2022.
• Al-Tahi Yaqtul al-Katib Yantahir (The Chef Kills, the Writer Commits Suicide) by Ezzat Elkamhawy from Egypt, published by Dar Al-Masriah Al-Lubnaniah in 2023.

Young Author

• Al Mashhad al-Moriski: Sardiyat al-Tard fi al-Fikr al-Espani (The Morisco Landscape: Narratives of Expulsion in Modern Spanish Thought), by Dr. Houssem Eddine Chachia from Tunisia, issued by the Centre for Research and Knowledge Intercommunication in 2023.
• Al-Usooli wal-Lisani: Bahth fi al-Bunyat al-Nahawiya wa-Taaddud al-Dalalat (The Fundamentalist and the Linguist: A Study of Syntactic Structures and Polysemy), by Dr. El Wali El Imrani from Morocco, issued by Kunouz Al-Ma’refa Publishing and Distribution House in 2023.
• Mashrou’ al-Nawm (The Sleeping Project) by Chiheb Abdullah from Tunisia, published by Hachette Antoine/Nofal in 2023.
• Markab Waraqi Yahrus al-Nahr (A Paper Boat Guarding the River) by Mohammad Arab Saleh from Egypt, published by Madarek Publishing House in 2023.
• Na’eesh li-Nahki: Balaghat al-Takhyeel fi Kalila wa Dimna (Living to Narrate: The Eloquent Imagination in Kalīla wa-Dimna) by Mustapha Rajouane from Morocco, issued by Kunouz Al-Ma’refa Publishing and Distribution House in 2023.
• Ghiwayat al-Fana (The Temptation of Mortality) by Hala Saleh Elsayyad from Egypt, issued by Sefsafa Publishing House in 2023.

Children’s Literature

• Aalam Khass (A Private World) by Marianna Barsoum from Egypt, published by Kitaby for Printing, Publishing, and Distribution in 2023.
• Al-Fata allathi Yushbih Al-Sindibad (The Boy Who Looks Like Sinbad) by Ahmed Korani from Egypt, published by Bayt ElHekma for Creative Industries in 2023.
• Shajarat al-Ahlam (The Tree of Dreams), by Mounira El Daraoui from Tunisia, published by El Amina Edition in 2023.

Translation

• Al-Aalam Iradatan wa-Tamathulan (Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung – The World: Will and Imagination), authored by Arthur Schopenhauer, translated from German to Arabic by Said Tawfik from Egypt, published by ‏Dar Al Kitab Al Jadeed, in 2023.
• Daleel Cambridge fi Tareekh al-Falsafa al-Arabiya (The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy), authored by Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor, translated from English to Arabic by Ashraf Mansour from Egypt, published by Mominoun Without Borders Publishing and Distribution, in 2023.
• Al-Ilm wal-Waii (Science Avec Conscience – Science with Conscience), authored by Edgar Morin, translated from French to Arabic by Izzeddine Khatiabi from Morocco, published by Arab Organization for Translation, in 2023.
• Al-Nathra an-Namatiya ila al-Hayat – Ru’ya Muwahada (The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision), authored by Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi, translated from English to Arabic by Mamon Alzaidy from Libya, published by Ninawa Studies Publishing & Distribution, in 2023.
• Al-Ilm al-Jadeed (La Scienza Nuova – The New Science), authored by Giambattista Vico, translated from Italian to Arabic by Dr. Ahmed Somai from Tunisia, published by Adab Publishing and Distribution, in 2022.
• Ma Waraa’ al-Gharb: Min Ajl Tafkeer Kawni Jadeed (Jenseits des Westens: Für ein Neues Kosmopolitisches Denken – Beyond the West: For a New Cosmopolitan Thought), authored by Stefan Weidner, translated from German to Arabic by Hamid Lechhab from Morocco, published by Mominoun Without Borders Publishing and Distribution, in 2023.
• Dihk an-Nisaa’: Qissat Sulta (Le Rire des Femmes: Une Histoire de Pouvoir – Women’s Laughter: A Story of Power), authored by Sabine Melchior-Bonnet, translated from French to Arabic by Jalal Elati-Rabbi from Morocco, published by Jadal Publishing, in 2022.

The shortlists will be announced in March before the winners are made public in April.