São Paulo – The authors shortlisted for the 12th International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), the most important prize in Arabic literature, were announced this Tuesday (5). The venue chosen for the announcement was the Palestinian National Theatre in Jerusalem in recognition for the flourishing Palestinian literary scene, according to the prize organization. Pictured above, the 2017 event.
The shortlist includes: Hoda Barakat (Lebanon), Adel Esmat (Egypt), Inaam Kachachi (Iraq), Mohammed Al-Maazuz (Morocco), Shahla Ujayli (Syria), and Kafa Al-Zou’bi (Jordan). Each of the shortlisted authors will receive USD 10,000. The winning Arabic fiction will be announced at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi on 23 April, and the winner will receive USD 50,000.
Each year, the shortlist is announced in a different place. Aside from Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem will also host the IPAF literary events. The prize has already rewarded several Palestinian, including Ibrahim Nasrallah and Rabai Al-Mahdoun.
Three female authors who have been recognized by the prize before have made the 2019 list. Iraqian author Inaam Kachachi, with the book The Outcast. She had been shortlisted for The American Granddaughter in 2009 and again in 2014 for Tashari. The Syrian author Shahla Ujayli, the youngest on the list, was shortlisted for Summer with the Enemy, having been a participant in the prize’s with Nadwa in 2014 and shortlisted for A Sky Close to Our House in 2016. And Lebanese Hoda Barakat for The Night Mail, longlisted for The Kingdom of the Earth in 2013.
These three authors are competing for the prize with the acclaimed Egyptian novelist Adel Esmat for The Commandments. His 2015 award-winning Tales of Yusrus is already available in English. Also competing are the Moroccan political anthropologist Mohammed Al-Maazuz, who reaches the list with his second novel, What Sin Caused her to Die? Also disputing is Jordanian writer Kafa Al-Zou’bi, who is shortlisted for the first time with her fifth novel, Cold White Sun.
With four women shortlisted, this year has the highest number since the prize began in 2008 (there were two women in 2011, 2015 and 2018). This week, to celebrate the shortlist, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction will host a series of events across Palestine in partnership with the British Council and The Educational Bookshop.
This year’s six shortlisted novels, selected from a longlist of 16 and published in Arabic between July 2017 and June 2018, showcase the best of contemporary Arabic fiction, exploring issues of belonging, societal changes over generations of Arab families and the ongoing battle against the fundamental flaws of human nature.
The Night Mail tells the stories of immigrants, exiled and homeless, who have each written a letter that is now lost like themselves. The Outcast is based on a true story and spans the history of modern Iraq tracking the life of a female journalist forced to flee her country. Cold White Sun reveals the alienation of a young intellectual Jordanian man from conservative society in Amman.
In Summer with the Enemy we learn about three generations of Syrian women in Raqqa through the recounting of a historical courtship. The Commandments follows an Egyptian family and the life lessons passed down from grandfather to grandson to help him avoid temptations. What Sin Caused her to Die? shares the story of a divorcee who tries to use the beauty of philosophy and music to resist her depression.
The winner of the prize will be before the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, to occur from February 24 to 30. Last year’s winner was The Second War of the Dog by Jordanian-Palestinian author Ibrahim Nasrallah.
The prize’s ambition is to increase the international reach of Arabic fiction, and provides funding for English translation for its winners. It is an annual literary prize for prose fiction in Arabic, sponsored by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) and is run with the support, as its mentor, of the Booker Prize Foundation in London.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
