UAE author Sultan Al Ameemi has been nominated for the tenth edition of the prestigious International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) - the first time an Emirati author has been recognised by the prestigious award.
Al Ameemi received the nod for One Room Is Not Enough, one of 16 novels from 10 countries in contention for the landmark 2017 prize, which carries a top cash award of $50,000 [Dh185,650].
The winner will be announced in a ceremony in Abu Dhabi on April 25, the eve of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
Judges picked the longlist from a total of 186 entires from 19 countries, published within the past 12 months.
Al Ameemi began writing his longlisted book at the 2014 Nadwa, an annual writing workshop for talented, emerging writers that is supported by IPAF. He will be going up against three previously shortlisted writers (Mohammed Hasan Alwan, Sinan Antoon and Amir Tag Elsir) and a further five previously longlisted (Renée Hayek, Ismail Fahd Ismail, Abdul-Kareem Jouaity, Elias Khoury and Mohammed Abdel Nabi).
The five-person judging panel for this year’s edition is chaired by Palestinian novelist Sahar Khalifa.
“The longlist novels are hugely varied in their subject matter and imagined worlds, embracing history, political and social themes and fantasy,” said Khalifa.
“As a whole they express the interactions, struggles and defeats, as well as the hopes and dreams, of the Arab world today.”
Also sitting on the panel is Palestinian translator Saleh Almani, Libyan academic, novelist and broadcaster Fatima al-Haji, Egyptian novelist and academic Sahar ElMougy and Greek academic and translator Sophia Vasalou.
With the goal of increasing the reach of Arabic fiction, the prize provides funding for English translation for its winners. Currently in the works is last year's winner, Palestinian writer Rabai al-Madhoun's Destinies: Concerto of the Holocaust and the Nakba.
Run with the support of the Booker Prize Foundation in London, and funded by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi), IPAF is recognised as the leading prize for literary fiction in the Arab world.
Professor Yasir Suleiman CBE, chair of the board of trustees, added: “This tenth anniversary longlist presents new writers and established ones who have reached the longlist before. This combination is testimony to the prize in its search for creative voices whose provenance extends from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Gulf.”
To find out more see www.arabicfiction.org.
rgarratt@thenational.ae
