Today at 7 a.m. GMT: The International Prize for Arabic Fiction Shortlist

Today at 7 a.m. GMT — or thereabouts — the 2016 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) judges will be revealed in Muscat, Oman, and they will in turn announce the prize’s 2016 shortlist:

The announcement ceremony will be held at Muscat’s Cultural Club.

The rockiest moment in this year’s prize rollout thus far was when prominent Kuwaiti writer Taleb Alrefai’s novel Here was withdrawn from the 16-book longlist. That came after organizers said they’d found that some copies had been published by Dar Al Shorouk in 2014 before the book was brought out by Platinum in 2015.

Alrefai, who’s also one of the founders of the new Almultaqa short-story prize, was previously a chair of judges for the IPAF.

There are two debut novels on this year’s list and three writers under forty. There are however only two women writers on this year’s longlist, a perennial issue for the prize.

You’ll find the shortlist announcement at www.arablit.org just after it’s made.