The Sheikh Zayed Book Award announces the longlists for four branches
Abu Dhabi, 27 November / WAM / The Sheikh Zayed Book Award announced the long lists nominated for the award in its twentieth session for the year 2025-2026 in the branches of “Literature,” “Young Author,” “Children’s and Young People’s Literature,” and “Manuscript Editing,” coinciding with the jury committees beginning work on the comprehensive evaluation of all entries nominated for the long lists.
In its twentieth session, organized by the Abu Dhabi Center for the Arabic Language, the award received more than 4,000 entries from 74 countries, distributed among 21 Arab countries and 53 foreign countries, including countries participating for the first time such as Chile, Iceland, and Luxembourg, which reflects the growing international presence of the award and its position in the global cultural scene.
The highest entries within the award branches were in the literature branch, followed by the young author branch, then the children’s and youth literature branch. Then the other branches of the award came in the following places: branches of arts and critical studies, development and state building, translation, Arab culture in other languages, manuscript verification, publishing and cultural techniques, and cultural personality of the year.
The session also witnessed a 12% increase in women’s participation compared to the previous session, and an 80% increase in participation from cultural and research institutions, as well as a 16% growth in participants coming from non-Arab countries.
The long list for the “Literatures” section included 11 titles from 8 Arab countries: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, and Lebanon. It included “The Tear of Granada” by Ahmed Al-Sabeet, from Saudi Arabia, “Night Shooting” by Ahmed Zein, from Yemen, “Births in the Zoo” by Ashraf Al-Ashmawy, from Egypt, and “A Swiss Summer” by Inaam Kajaji, from Iraq. – France, “Al-Tanfa” by Al-Siddiq Haj Ahmed, from Algeria, “The Secret of the Saffron” by Badriya Al-Bishr, from Saudi Arabia, “The Seventh Day’s Play” by Jalal Barjas, from Jordan, “Dukhi: Taqasim Al-Saba” by Talib Al-Rifai, from Kuwait, “Death of the World” by Abdul Rahim Kamal, from Egypt, “Summer of the Widow of Saroufim” by Mazen Haider, from Lebanon – France, and “Fouror” by Nizar Abdul Sattar, from Iraq.
The long list for the “Young Author” section included 8 titles from 5 different countries: Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, and Jordan, and varied between critical studies, narrative works, scientific theses, and poetry. It included “The Perfume of the Lonely Tree” by Ahmed Al-Ruwai’i, from Saudi Arabia, “My Butterfly That Never Dies” by Alaa Al-Qatrawi, from Palestine, and “Worlds of Experimentation: In the Eloquent Saudi Theatrical Text – A Structural Approach” by Dr. Jaber Muhammad Yahya Al-Najadi, from Saudi Arabia, and “Nadaha Aseel from London to Jeddah” by Dina Shehata, from Egypt, and “Imagining Andalusia: Narrating History between Reality and Ideology in the Arabic and Spanish Novel” by Dr. Saeed Al-Falaq, from Morocco, and “Al-Nadim: A Book in Books” by Omar Zakaria, from Jordan, and “The Arabic Novel and Mythology in the Third Millennium” by Muhammad Aziz, from Morocco, and “Plots and Characters: The Argumentative Rhetorical Approach to the Arabic Novel by Mustafa Rajwan, from Morocco.
The long list for the “Children’s and Young People’s Literature” branch included 9 titles by authors from 7 countries: Egypt, Palestine, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iraq, the Emirates, and Tunisia. It included “Dark Web” by Ahmed Qarni, from Egypt, published by Nahdet Misr Publishing House in 2024, “Lulwa’s Summer” by Anas Abu Rahma, from Palestine, “A Very Small Problem” by Buthaina Al-Issa, from Kuwait, and “Qaryat.” Darkness” by Souad Salibi, from Lebanon, “My Identity” by Fadel Al Kaabi, from Iraq, “My Suns” by Maryam Saqr Al Qasimi, from the Emirates, “When Wishes Fulfilled” by Mona Kamal, from Egypt – Canada, “Master of Amphibians” by Hind Saif Al-Bar, from the United Arab Emirates, and “My Daughter, My Love” by Wiam Ghaddas, from Tunisia.
The long list of the “Manuscript Editing” section included 8 titles from 5 different countries: Syria, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Tunisia, and varied between critical heritage works and solid scientific studies. It included “The Book of Victory,” edited by Fares Ahmed Al-Alawi, from Syria, “The Martyrdom of Arethas in Arabic,” edited by Paolo La Spezza, from Italy, and “The Encyclopedia of World Religions (6 Volumes)” by Prof. Dr. Muhammad Al-Khasht, from Egypt, “The Diwan of Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi and his News,” edited by Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin Hamad al-Batshan, from Saudi Arabia, and “Al-Mu’nis in the News of Africa and Tunisia,” edited by Prof. Dr. Ahmed al-Bahi, from Tunisia, and “Explanation of the Diwan of al-Mutanabbi,” edited by Abd al-Rahman bin Dakhil Rabbuh al-Matrafi, from Saudi Arabia, and “The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Civilization’s Words and Their Tools in Egyptian Official Documents in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries AD” by A. Dr. Essam Ahmed Issawi, from Egypt, and “The Book of Specters of Imagination,” edited by Prof. Dr. Amr Abdel Aziz Mounir, from Egypt.
The Sheikh Zayed Book Award will continue to publish long lists for the other branches of the award successively.
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