The Announcement of the 2025 International Prize for Arabic Fiction Shortlist from the BA
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The Bibliotheca Alexandrina hosted on Wednesday the conference announcing the shortlist of novels competing for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, in the presence of Dr. Ahmed Zayed, Director of the BA; Prof. Yasir Suleiman, the Prize's Chair of Trustees; and Ms. Fleur Montanaro, the Prize’s coordinator. Also in attendance were the Prize’s judges: Mona Baker (Chair), Bilal Orfali, Sampsa Peltonen, Said Bengrad, and Maryam Al Hashimi.
Dr. Ahmed Zayed said that the selection of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina to announce the shortlist for this year’s Arabic Fiction Prize underlines the important significance of this cultural institution in the Arab world, and sheds light on the city of Alexandria as a place for the production of art, narrative, and thought.
Dr. Mona Baker announced the works that the jury decided to include in the shortlist after several deliberations, which are as follows: Danshmand by Ahmed Fal Al Din (Mauritania), The Valley of the Butterflies by Azher Jirjees (Iraq), The Andalusian Messiah by Taissier Khalaf (Syria), The Women's Charter by Haneen Al-Sayegh (Lebanon), The Prayer of Anxiety by Mohamed Samir Nada (Egypt), and The Touch of Light by Nadia Al-Najar (UAE).
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the Arab world, which aims to shed light on contemporary Arabic literature.