‘Lebanese Blonde,’ ‘House of Stone,’ ‘Atrium’ Win 2013 Arab American Book Awards

Yesterday evening, the Arab American Museum announced winners of the 2013 Arab American Book Awards — although it looks like Three Rooms Press  knew about the winners around June 20 — but in any case there were four winners and five honorable mentions:

According to organizers, “The program has attracted increasing numbers of submissions from authors and publishers across the nation in its brief, seven-year history,” According to the museum’s Kim Silarski, there were 31 submissions. The names of the judges are not made public “to preserve the integrity of the process.”

This year’s winners are:

Fiction – Lebanese Blonde by Joseph Geha
Nonfiction –  House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid
Poetry – Atrium: Poems by Hala Alyan
Children/Young Adult – Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books by Susan L. Roth and Karen Leggett Abouraya

This year’s Honorable Mentions:

Fiction – Flying Carpets by Hedy Habra
Non-Fiction – The Girl Who Fell to Earth by Sophia Al-Maria and Even My Voice is Silence by Soha Al-Jurf
Poetry –  Sea and Fog by Etel Adnan
Children/Young Adult – Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Winning titles will be celebrated at the 2013 Arab American Book Award Ceremony on Nov 2 in Dearborn, Michigan, USA.

More details on the Arab-American Museum website.