The Markaz Review Launches Its First Lit Prizes
JULY 8, 2026 — The Markaz Review today announced the launch of its first-ever literary prizes for “emerging and established writers from the SWANA (Middle East, North Africa, and Southwest Asia) region and its diasporas” either written in or translated into English.
Awards for first and second place will be $3,000 and $1,000 respectively, in addition to a month-long writer’s retreat for the first-place author and publication in The Markaz Review.
If the entry is a translation, according to the guidelines, “the cash prize will be split evenly between the author and the translator.” The full guidelines are available online, and judges will be announced in the coming months.
Submissions open July 8th for fiction and creative nonfiction.
The prize judges will be announced in the coming months.
“We are incredibly excited to discover fresh voices and provide a springboard for emerging talent,” Rana Asfour, The Markaz Review’s Executive Editor, said in a prepared statement.
The prizes are supported by the de Groot Foundation and the Hawthornden Foundation; The Markaz Review will also be partnering with the Caine Prize for African Writing to extend their reach to writers working in Arabic, English, and French.