‘The Corpse Washer,’ ‘A Concordance of Leaves’ Win Arab-American Book Awards

According to the Arab American Museum’s Matthew Stiffler, the 2014 Arab American Book Awards — given to books published in 2013 — have just been announced:

As in past years, the names of the judges weren’t released.

The four winners are:

Fiction: The Corpse Washer, by Sinan Antoon

The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award: We Are Iraqis: Aesthetics and Politics in a Time of War, edited by Nadje Al-Ali and Deborah Al-Najjar

The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award: A Concordance of Leaves, by Philip Metres

Children/Young Adult: Kids Guide to Arab American History, by Yvonne Wakim Dennis and Maha Addasi

Honorable mentions went to another six titles.

Fiction: The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud

Non-Fiction: Between the Middle East and the Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora, edited by Evelyn Alsultany and Ella Shohat AND The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Cultural Journey, by Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt

Poetry: My Daughter La Chola, by Farid Matuk AND Alight, by Fady Joudah

Children/Young Adult: The Arab World Thought of It, by Saima S. Hussain

The 2014 Arab American Book Award winners will be honored during this year’s Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI) conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, with the award ceremony set to take place on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at Open Book. The event is free for RAWI attendees; others must purchase tickets.