AlMultaqa Prize for Short-story Collections Announces Five-book Shortlist

DECEMBER 12, 2023 — The Kuwait-based AlMultaqa Prize for Arabic Short Stories has announced their five-book shortlist for the 2023-24 awards cycle. According to judging chair Shahla Ujayli, a former winner of the prize, competition was intense, both because of the quality of submissions and because of the diversity of their stylistic choices, from classic to experimental.

This year’s judging committee is chaired by former AlMultaqa winner Ujayli (whose winning book was translated as A Bed for the King’s Daughter by Sawad Hussain), and also includes Shuaib Halifi, Fahd Hussein, Saada al-Daas, and Michelle Hartman, who is also the translator of two of Ujayli’s novels: Summer with the Enemy and A Sky So Close to Us.

The five shortlisted titles are:

ثملًا على متن دراجة هوائية (Drunk on a Bicycle), by Moroccan writer Ismail Al-Ghazali

دُو، يَك (Do, Yik), by Syrian writer Rawa’a Sunbul

دمى حزينة (Sad Dolls), by Egyptian writer Samir al-Fil

المقطر (Distilled), by Kuwaiti writer Abdul Hadi Al-Jamil

وقت قصير للهلع (A Brief Time to Panic), by Omani writer Yahya Salam Al-Mundhiri

The original ten-book longlist was selected from among 198 short-story collections submitted from 23 countries.

According to a news release, the jury will meet in Kuwait in the second week of January 2024 to choose the winner, who will receive a $20,000 prize. Each writer on the shortlist also receives a $5,000 prize.

In addition to the awards ceremony, the American University of Kuwait will host the first conference on the Arabic short story, bringing together short-story writers, international publishers, and translators.

The prize — a recent addition to the literary landscape — is only in its six year. Its first winner, Palestinian poet and writer Mazen Maarouf, took the prize for Jokes for the Gunmen, which was also longlisted for the International Booker in Jonathan Wright’s translation.