Rabat – International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) announced on January 26 its 2022 Prize longlist. One out of 16 selected novels will win MAD 465,675 ($50,000) in May 2022, the press release stated.
Organized in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center, IPAF is an annual literary prize for Arabic-written novels. The prize seeks, according to their website, to “encourage the readership of high quality Arabic literature internationally through the translation and publication of winning and shortlisted novels in other major languages.”
IPAF jury selected 16 novels out of 122 entries published in Arabic between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021. The selected novels originate from nine North African and Middle Eastern countries, namely Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Syria, UAE, the statement added.
The 2022 novel submissions were praised by the judges.“Submissions for the Prize this year were of high quality,” said Shukri Mabkhout, chair of the 2022 jury. He added that the novels “give expression to the concerns of Arab peoples today, in their different local environments.”
Yasir Suleiman, Chair of the Board of Trustees, agreed. He said, “The novels on the longlist … continue to explore a range of themes that deal with fracture and the unresolved questions that have bedeviled the relationship of Arab society and culture with its various strands and with the external Other.”
In addition to the high quality of submissions, the selection of former prize nominees on the longlist and the participation of former prize winners in the jury marked the 2022 IPAF.
Ezzedine Choukri and Haji Jabir had their works longlisted in 2022 and previous IPAF editions, such as Embrace on Brooklyn Bridge in 2012 and Black Foam in 2019, respectively.
The 2022 IPAF jury consisted of five judges, including Tunisian novelist and 2015 IPAF winner Shukri Mabkhout (chair), Libyan doctor and poet Ashur Etwebi, Kuwaiti critic and poet Saadiah Mufarreh, Bulgarian academic and translator Baian Bayhanova, and Lebanese writer and board member of PEN International Iman Humaydan.
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