Deadline Coming: Send Submissions to 2020 ArabLit Story Prize

Tick tock, it’s time to send in your submissions to the 2020 ArabLit Story Prize:

The ArabLit Story Prize is an award for the best short stories, in any genre, newly translated from Arabic into English. Translators must have rights to the work, and translations must have been previously unpublished.

Stories will be judged primarily on the quality of the translated work as a thing-in-itself, although translators must also submit the Arabic original, as this must be a translation, not a loose adaptation nor a work written originally in English.

This year’s three judges are Sawad Hussain, Donia Kamel, and Hilal Chouman.

Submission materials must include: 1) Cover letter with the name of author, translator, story, and length. 2) The story in translation, rendered as 4000 words or fewer in English, attached as a Word document. 3) The story in the original Arabic, preferably in the same Word document. 4) Some evidence you have the rights to translate and publish this story, such as an email from the author or a scanned note.

Note: Do not put author or translator’s name on the attached works. If you put your name on the work, it may be disqualified. (Or, more likely, we will email and ask you to remove it.)

THERE IS NO FEE FOR SUBMISSIONS. And thus no reason not to send in any story you’ve been sitting on.

Questions about submissions can be sent to info@arablit.org.

The prize: $500 to the winner, split between author and translator. Shortlisted stories will have the opportunity to be published in the ArabLit Quarterly as well as a future anthology.

Submit here, on Submittable.