Chadian Author Wins 2026 Bait AlGhasham DarArab Prize
FEBRUARY 12, 2026 — Organizers of the Bait AlGhasham DarArab Prize today announced 2026’s winning works in three categories: Authors, Translators, and Omani Publications.
This year’s prize received nearly 400 submissions, with the lion’s share — 346 — coming in the “Authors” category. There were an additional 34 in the “Translators” category and 10 in the category of “Omani Publications.” The prize announced its shortlists back in December.
The prize for an original manuscript, in the Authors category, went to the novel “كائن غير سوي” (An Abnormal Being) by Chadian writer Tahir Al-Noor, author of the acclaimed A Symphony of the South. The jury described the novel as “a tightly constructed narrative that engages with human fragility as an existential condition,” noting that it “generates tension from within through compact language and careful structure, avoiding ready-made judgments and opening the text to multiple interpretations.”
The award in the Translators category went to Katherine Van de Vate for her translation of Tareq Imam’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction-shortlisted novel Cairo Marquette. The jury noted that the translation “successfully recreates the underlying tension of the original text through an independent English voice that preserves a surface calm while conveying deeper unease, adding that it “renders the novel’s strangeness and violence with measured stylistic precision, granting the work a strong presence in its new language.”
The winning work in the third category — for Omani authors — is the short-story collection “قوانين الفقد” (Laws of Loss) by Mazen Habeeb. In its comments, the jury wrote that the collection “presents a cohesive body of stories that sensitively explores Omani village life. Through restrained, sometimes lyrical language, it engages themes of loss, death, and abandonment, with close attention to local detail and a credible, emotionally resonant narrative world.”
The winning works and their translations are set to be published by DarArab in the second half of 2027. The prize, now in its third year, grants approximately GBP 70,000 across its three categories,which goes to translation, editing, publishing, and international promotion of its winning titles.
This year’s Translators category was judged by Dr. Samaher Al-Dhamen, Marcia Lynx Qualey, and Luke Leafgren, winner of last year’s Bait AlGhasham DarArab International Translation Prize in the translation category. The Authors and Omani Publications categories, meanwhile, were were judged by Dr. Amir Taj Al-Sir, along with two previous winners of the prize: Bushra Khalfan and Yas Al-Saeedi.
The award ceremony, meanwhile, is set to take place as part of the Muscat International Book Fair, scheduled this year for March 26 to April 5, 2026. TSubmissions to the 2027 prize will open on March 20, 2026.