Sheikh Zayed Book Award announces shortlists for its 19th edition

ABU DHABI / WAM

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA), organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), has unveiled the shortlists for its 19th edition, featuring outstanding works from around the world in the categories of literature, children’s literature, translation, contribution to the development of nations, literary and art criticism, Arab culture in other languages, and editing of Arabic manuscripts.
The award’s scientific committee approved the shortlists during a meeting chaired by Dr Ali bin Tamim, Chairman of the ALC and Secretary-General of the SZBA, and attended by committee members Saeed Hamdan Al Tunaiji, Executive Director of the ALC; Juergen Boos (Germany); Dr Nadia El Cheikh (Lebanon); and Mustafa Al-Slaiman (Jordan).
New members of the committee this year includes Dr Khaled Al-Masri (Jordan/USA), Dr Reem Bassiouney (Egypt), Dr Moneera Al-Ghadeer (Saudi Arabia), and Dr Mehmet Hakki Suçin (Turkiye), alongside Abdulrahman Al Naqbi, Director of the ALC’s Literary Awards Department.
The shortlist for the literature category includes: The Sphinx by Ahmed Mourad (Egypt), published by Dar El Shorouk in 2023; Travels of the City of Clay Trilogy by Saud Alsanousi (Kuwait), published by Dar Kalimat Publishing & Distribution – Moulaph in 2023; and Hind or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Hoda Barakat (Lebanon/France), published by Dar Aladab in 2024.
For the children’s literature category, the shortlisted works are Maymouna and Her Crazy Ideas by Shireen Sabanegh (Jordan), published by Hachette Antoine/Nofal in 2023; The Phantom of Sabiba by Latifa Labsir (Morocco), published by Markaz Kitab in 2024; and The Digital Fox by Hegra Elsawi (Egypt), published by Dar Shan Publishing & Distribution in 2024.
Three works are shortlisted in the translation category: Tausendundeine Nacht: Das Buch der Liebe (One Thousand and One Nights: The Book of Love), translated from Arabic to German by Claudia Ott (Germany), published by Verlag C.H. Beck in 2022; Orosius by Paulus Orosius, translated from Arabic to English by Marco Di Branco (Italy), published by Pisa University Press in 2024; and Le démon de la théorie: Littérature et sens commun (The Demon of Theory: Literature and Common Sense) by Antoine Compagnon, translated from French to Arabic by Hassan Outtaleb (Morocco), published by Dar Alkitab Aljadeed in 2023.
The shortlist for the literary and art criticism category consists of Food and Language: Cultural Excavations in Arab Heritage by Dr Said Laouadi (Morocco), published by Afrique Orient in 2023; Poetry and Prophecy: Abu Tayeb as the Poet-Prophet by Dr Rita Awad (Palestine), published by the Arab Institute for Research & Publishing in 2024; and Urbanistic Samarra: A Study of Architecture and Planning of an Abbasid City by Dr Khaled Alsultany (Iraq), published by Adib Books in 2024.
The three works shortlisted for the Contribution to the Development of Nations category are The Right to Strive: Perspectives on Muslim Women’s Rights by Prof. Dr. Mohammed Bechari (UAE), published by Nahdet Misr Publishing in 2024; The Philosophy of Recognition and Identity Politics: Criticism of the Cultural Approach to Arab-Islamic Culture by Housamedden Darwish (Syria/Germany), published by Mominoun Without Borders in 2023; and Cities and Trade in Arab and Islamic Civilisation by Prof. Dr. Majduddin Khemesh (Jordan), published by Dar Alsayel for Publishing & Distribution in 2024.
In the Arab Culture in Other Languages category, the shortlist features Arabic Literary Culture in Southeast Asia in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries by Andrew Peacock (UK), published by Brill in 2024; The Rise of the Arabic Book by Beatrice Gruendler (Germany), published by Harvard University Press in 2020; and Geschichte des östlichen zagal: Dialektale arabische Strophendichtung aus dem Osten der arabischen Welt – von den Anfängen bis zum Ende der Mamlukenzeit (The History of Eastern Zajal: Arabic Poetry in Colloquial Dialects from the Eastern Arab World – From its Beginnings to the End of the Mamluk Era) by Hakan Özkan (Turkiye), published by Ergon Verlag in German in 2020.
Lastly, in the Editing of Arabic Manuscripts category, the shortlisted works are News of Women by Rasheed Alkhayoun (Iraq/UK), published by King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies in 2024; Interpretation of the Mu’allaqat Poems by Saleh Aljassar (Saudi Arabia), published by Alkhizana Alandalusia – Al-Khanji Library in Cairo in 2024; and Alkawakib Alsayaara fi Tartib Alziyara by Dr. Ahmed Gomaa Abdelhamid (Egypt), published by Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale in 2024.
The Sheikh Zayed Book Award decided to withhold the Award from the Young Author and Publishing and Technology categories for this edition. Across the other seven categories, the Award received over 4,000 nominations from 75 countries, including 20 Arab nations. Moreover, this year saw submissions from five countries participating for the first time – Albania, Bolivia, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Mali – further underscoring the global reach and prestige of the award.
The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is an independent scholarly prize that supports the global literary landscape, publishing industry, and translation activities. It honours creative individuals, intellectuals, and publishers for their literary contributions in the fields of literature, writing, research, translation, and showcasing various cultures, recognising their efforts in that regard that, in turn, serve to connect different cultures and foster international dialogue.