Darwish and Abu-Zeid, Gzar and Hutchins Longlisted for 2022 PEN Awards

Yesterday, PEN America announced the longlists for their 2022 literary awards, including the two categories for work in translation.

Each had one work translated from Arabic.

In the category for “Poetry in Translation,” Najwa Darwish‘s Exhausted on the Cross, translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, was one of ten poetry collections longlisted by judges Caro Carter, Michael Favala Goldman, and Parisa Saranj.

The PEN Award for Poetry in Translation brings with it a $3000 prize.

The other books longlisted in this category, and others, can be found on the PEN website.

Also, in the ten-book prose-translation category, judges selected I’m in Seattle, Where Are You?: A Memoir, by Mortada Gzar, translated by William Hutchins.  

This category was judged by Almiro Andrade, Mayada Ibrahim, Barbara Ofosu-Somuah, and Sharon E. Rhodes.

Also longlisted, in the prose-translation category, was Algerian-French author Fatima Daas’s The Last One, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud.

The PEN Translation Prize also carries a $3000 US prize.

Finalists for all categories are set to be announced in January 2022.