Sheikh Zayed Book Award Deadline Extended

This is your year to get a Sheikh Zayed Book Award.

The nominations deadline has been extended from mid August to Sept. 15, 2010. The award’s secretary general, Rashid Al Araimi, made the announcement in Damascus earlier this month. I have not seen a reason given, although of course the new deadline is after the Eid.

The Sheikh Zayed award “seeks to strengthen the role of creativity, science, and thought,” and has nine categories: Cultural Personality of the Year; Best Contribution to the Development of the Country; Children’s Literature; Young Author; Translation; Literature; Fine Arts; Best Technology in the Field of Culture; and Publishing and Distribution.

The awards were first presented in 2007. Past winners in the “literature” category have included both authors (Gamal al-Ghitani) and critics (Hafnaoui Baali); the children’s lit award has gone to Qais Sidki (Gold Ring) and Dr. Mohammed Ali Ahmad.

If you’d like to nominate someone (unless it’s for cultural personality of the year), go here.