Shortlisted Novels for Int'l Prize for Arabic Fiction Announced

On Tuesday, the shortlisted Arabic novels of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) was announced.

Consisted of six novels, the novels are Tarek Imam's "Cairo's Maquette," Bushra Khalfan's "Dilshad" and Rim Al Kamali's "Rose's Diary."

In addition, Khaled Nasrallah's "The White Line of the Night" Mohammed Al-Nu'as' "Bread on Uncle Milad's Table," and Mohseni Loukili "The Prisoner of the Portuguese" are also shortlisted.

Each writer will be awarded $ 10,000, in addition, the winner will get an extra $ 50,000.

The winner will be announced on May 22.

Revealed by the Prize committee's head Shukri Mabkhout, the featured writers are from six countries and their ages range between 34 and 52 years old.

Furthermore, the themes of the novels revolve around identity, self-expression, cities' memories, gender issues, and marginalized communities.

The panel of the prize consisted of five judges chaired by Tunisian novelist, academic and previous IPAF winner Mabkhout, Libyan poet and translator Ashur Etwebi, Lebanese writer and PEN International board member Iman Humaydan, Kuwaiti poet and critic Saadiah Mufarreh, and Bulgarian academic and translator Baian Rayhanova.

It is worthy to mention that the longlisted novels include other two Egyptian works: "Farah's Story" by Ezzedine Choukri Fishire, and "Mother of Mimi" by Bilal Fadl.

Regarding the winner of the previous edition, it was "Notebooks by the Bookseller" by the Jordanian poet and novelist Jalal Barjas who was also one of the longlisted for the prize in 2019.

His novel tells the story of a book lover’s experience with schizophrenia and a crime spree he commits using the names of characters from fiction

The novel, published by The Arabic Institute for Research and Publishing, was named as this year’s winner by Chair of Judges Chawki Bazih during a virtual winner ceremony.