Yesterday, the jury of the Arab Prize for the Arabic Novel 2020 announced the short list of novels nominated for the prize in its 13th session, during a press conference held at the Museum of Water Civilization in Marrakesh, Morocco, where the list included six novels, selected from among 16 novels entered the long list, It is published in Arabic between June 2018 and July 2019.
The writers nominated to win the grand prize of $ 50,000, and each writer who reached the short list, will get $ 10,000, during the announcement ceremony for the winning novel on April 14 in Abu Dhabi. The short list of the award session includes five writers and one writer, who ranged between 34 and 75 years old, and come from five Arab countries. The nominated accounts came as follows:
The “Spartan Court” by Abd al-Wahhab Issawi (Algeria), the “Russian Quarter” by Khalil Al-Raz (Syria), “The King of India” by Jabour Al-Duwaihi (Lebanon), “Firewood of Sarajevo” by Saeed Khatibi (Algeria), “Tanki” by Alia Mamdouh (Iraq), and "Verdun" by Youssef Zidan (Egypt).
The head of the jury, Mohsen al-Moussawi, said: “The chosen narrations include a selection of diverse texts in style and material, and most of them came out of the siege of the tradition that accompanies the narrative phenomenon. To raise the reader questions about the fate of the Arab person ».
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Yasser Suleiman, said: «The short list of this session provides six narrations in which the narrative mechanisms vary, as well as their topics and the spaces in which their events take place, time and place. In spite of this diversity, the affairs of the Arab human being, in its past and present, remain pervaded in an atmosphere of imaginary narration, which grinds the reader in a slow pace sometimes, or promises him a quick enemy to worlds of pain that does not leave souls ».
The awarding ceremony for the award-winning novel will be held next April 14 at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
Authors are competing to win the grand prize of $ 50,000.