Sheikh Zayed Book Award winners will be announced at next year's Abu Dhabi International Book Fair

The annual award's Literary Studies category is renowned for its academic rigour

Winners of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award will be announced in a ceremony held during the 2019 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.  

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award has announced the longlist for its Literature prize. The category is open to novels, memoirs and poetry collections that were published over the past two years.

The 13 nominations emerged from 382 nominations received over a six-month period. Authors nominated for their works include Morocco's Ben Salim Himmich, who won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for his 2001 novel Al-'Allamah.

He is also joined Saudi authors Ibrahim Shehbi and Amal Al Farran as well as Maha Hassan, the Syrian Kurdish author whose 2011 work Umbilical Cord was longlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize.

Here is the long list for the award’s Literature category. All titles are novels unless otherwise indicated:

La Arany (I Don't See Me) a poetry collection by Egyptian author Ahmed Al Shahawi (2018)

Esmy Fatima (My Name is Fatima), a novel by Egyptian writer Amro Al Adly (2017)

Al Yad Al Dafe'a (The Warm Hand) a novel by Palestinian writer Yahya Yakhlif (2017)

Terter (The Sequin Embroidery) by Iraqi novelist Nizar Abdelsattar (2018)

Ard Al Mo'amarat Al Sa'eeda (Land of Happy Plots) by Yemeni author Wajdi Al-Ahdal (2018)

Share' Salem (Salem Street) by Norwegian author Nizar Agri (2017)

Al Warda Al Qatela (The Deadly Rose) by Saudi author Ibrahim Shehbi (2018)

Ghawaso Al Ahqaf (Divers of the Empty Quarter) by Saudi novelist Amal Al Faran (2016)

Korsy Ala Al Zabd (A Chair on the Sea Foam) a poetry collection by Lebanese author Mohammed Ali Chamseddine (2018)

Bareed Al Lail’ (Night Mail) by Lebanese novelist Hoda Barakat (2018)

'E'mt Sabahan Ayatoha al Harb (Good Morning War) by Syrian Kurdish novelist Maha Hasan, published by Almutawassit Books (2017)

Al That Bayn Al Wujood Wal Eijad (The Self- between Existence and Creation) an autobiography by Moroccan novelist Bensalem Himmich, published by Book Cultural Centre for Publishing & Distribution (2018)

Al Nabeetha (The Castaway), by Iraqi author Inaam Kachachi, Dar Al Jadeed (2017)

Literary Studies category also announced

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award announced the longlist for its Literary Studies category.

The field is renowned for its rigorous academic titles (written in Arabic) that explores themes and the history of Arabic literature.

This year is no different, with books examining the narrative techniques used in Arabic novels, a critical examination of the work by renowned Syrian poet Adonis and the state of the Arabic language in the age of globalisation.

Out of the 123 books nominated, the panel chose seven titles which will be further whittled down to a handful with the shortlist announcement next year.

Further longlist announcements are due in the coming weeks for the prize’s other categories including the Literature, Young Author and Translation.

Nominations for the 13th edition of the awards closed on October 1 with winners to be announced in a ceremony held during the 2019 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair which runs from April 23-30 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

Sheikh Zayed Book Award winners receive Dh750, 000, in addition to a gold medal and certificate of merit.

For more details on the Sheikh Zayed Book Award go to www.zayedaward.ae

Here is the long list for the award’s Literary Studies category:

Seerat al-'anqa': min markaziyyat al thoukoura 'ila ma ba'd markaziyyat al onoutha (The Life of the Phoenix: from phallocentrism to post-feminist centrism) by Syrian academic Asmaa Mouikel. published by the Arab Institute for Research & Publishing, Beirut (2017)

Ma ba'd qaseedat al-nathr: nahwa khitab jadeed lil sha'riyyah al-arabiyah' (Post Prose Poetry Era: Towards a new discourse for Arabic Poetry) by Egyptian scholar Sayed Elsisi (2016)

Fi balaghat al- hajjaj: nahwa balagha hajjajiyyah litahleel al- khitab (The Rhetoric of Eloquence), by Moroccan scholar Mohamed Mechbal, published by Kunooz Al Maarifa, Amman (2017)

Al-ta'rikhi wal sardi fil riwaya al-arabiyah (Chronicles and Narrations in Arabic Narrative) by Iraqi critic Fadhil Thamir, published by Ibn Al Nadim, Algeria (2017)

Al-kitaba wa bina'a al-shi'r 'ind Adonis (The Writing & Poetry of Adonis) by Tunisian scholar Omar Hfaiedh, published by Dar al- Saqi, Beirut (2015)

Al-'alamat wal ashya': kayf no'eed iktishaf al 'alam fil khitab? (Signs & Things: how to rediscover the world through discourse?) by Egyptian scholar Abdelfattah Youssef, published by Dar Al Rawafed Al Thaqafiyyah / Ibn Al Nadim, Algeria (2016).

Tatweer al-harf al-arabi wa tahaddiyat al- awlama/ (Developing the Arabic Letter challenges of Globalisation) by Moroccan academic Abderrazzak Tourabi, published by Institut d'Etudes et de Recherches pour l'Arabisation — Mohammed V University, Rabat (2015)