Amir Tag Elsir, Aziz Mohammed, Ibrahim Nasrallah, Shahad Al Rawi, Walid Shurafa and Dima Wannous have been announced on Wednesday February 21, 2018, as the six authors shortlisted for the 11th International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF).
The books were revealed by the 2018 chair of judges, Ibrahim Al Saafin, during a press conference held at the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation in Amman, Jordan.
Two debut novelists, who are the youngest authors from the longlist, – Saudi Arabian Aziz Mohammed and Iraqi Shahad Al Rawi – make this year’s shortlist. Al Rawi’s Baghdad Clock has already been translated into English and will be published in June by Oneworld Publications.
International Prize for Arabic Fiction Announces 2018 Shortlist https://t.co/54p7vDvXH3 pic.twitter.com/OwGYr8VJcJ
— M. Lynx Qualey (@arablit) February 21, 2018
They are competing with two previously shortlisted authors: Sudanese Amir Tag Elsir (2011, The Grub Hunter) and Palestinian/Jordanian Ibrahim Nasrallah (2009, Time of White Horses), who have also both served as mentors on the Prize’s Nadwa – an annual writing workshop for talented, emerging writers.
Completing the list are Palestinian Walid Shurafa and Syrian Dima Wannous, who are recognized by the Prize for the first time. Wannous’ The Frightened Ones is currently being translated into English, due for publication in 2019.
Last year’s winner of the Prize was A Small Death by Mohammed Hasan Alwan.
International Prize for #Arabic Fiction Names Six 2018 Shortlisted Novels | @Porter_Anderson https://t.co/bBPG7hNoBu Authors represent #Sudan #SaudiArabia #Palestine #Jordan #Iraq #Syria pic.twitter.com/oKpqnGQfVL
— PubPerspectives (@pubperspectives) February 22, 2018
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is an annual literary prize for prose fiction in Arabic. It is run with the support, as its mentor, of the Booker Prize Foundation in London and sponsored by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi).
(PC, Social Media)
