Sheikh Zayed Book Award Announces 2020 Longlist

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA) today announced the longlist for its 2020 literature category:

Thirteen new books — published in 2018 and 2019 — by mostly prominent and popular authors from across the region have been named on the 2020 SZBA longlist in the literature category.

The novels and short-story collections:

Muhsin al-Ramli’s أبناء وأحذية (Children and Shoes)

Amir Tag Elsir’s تاكيكارديا (Tachycardia)

Ali al-Shaali, الحي الحي (The Living…The Living)

Rachid al-Daif’s خطأ غير مقصود (An Unintended Mistake) 

Ibrahim Eissa’s حروب الرحماء (Wars of Mercy)

Khairi Al Dhahabi’s المكتبة السرية والجنرال (The Secret Library and The General)

Hassan Hamid’s الكراكي (al-Karaki)

Najwa Barakat’s مستر نون (Mr Noon)

Maha Hassan’s حي الدهشة (The Neighborhood of Astonishment)

Mansoura Ez Eldin’s مأوى الغياب (The Refuge of Absence)

Mamdouh Azzam’s أرواح صخرات العسل (Souls of Honey Rocks)

The poetry collections:

Moncef Ouhaibi’s  بالكأس ما قبل الأخيرة (The Cup Before the Last)

Youssef Razuka’s الذئب وما أخفى (The Wolf and What It Hid) and رشائية: الغزالة والزلزال (Rasha’yat: The Gazelle and the Earthquake)

The thirteen-book longlist — made up of eleven novels and two poetry collections — was chosen from among 438 nominated titles. Last year, Bensalem Himmich’s memoir The Self: Between Existence and Creation won the literature category.

The shortlist will be announced in March 2020.