ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), the most prestigious literary prize in the Arab world, has revealed the longlist of 16 novels in contention for the 2026 prize.
The awards are sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, and the winning novel will be announced on April 9, 2026, in Abu Dhabi.
The longlist has been chosen from a total of 137 submissions by a panel of five judges chaired by Tunisian researcher and critic Mohamed Elkadhi.
Joining him on the panel are Palestinian writer and translator Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, Bahraini academic and critic Dheya Alkaabi, South Korean academic Laila Hyewon Baek, and Iraqi writer and translator Shakir Nouri.
The selection includes one previous winner - Adelouahab Aissaoui (2020), two authors who have been previously shortlisted by IPAF - Said Khatibi (2020), Abdelmajid Sebbata (2021), and three previously longlisted authors - Ahmad Abdulatif (2018, 2023), Omaima Abdullah Al-Khamis (2010, 2019) and Amin Zaoui (2013, 2018, 2024).
The other 10 authors feature on the list for the first time: Najwa Barakat, Nizar Chakroun, Marwan Al-Ghafouri, Abdelsalem Ibrahim, Doaa Ibrahim, Diaa Jubaili, Khalil Sweileh, Sherifa Al-Toubi, Abdo Wazen, Essam El Zayaat.
The longlisted novels span diverse time periods, from ancient Middle Eastern civilisations more than 4000 years ago to a futuristic Cairo where humanity is on the brink of extinction, and from late 20th century Yemeni and Omani villages to a current day Japanese prison.
They trace decades of political and social upheavals in countries such as Algeria and Iraq, and focus on the personal struggles of individuals who commit crimes, driven by passion, politics or psychosis.
They also spotlight the complex relationship between reality and its depictions in books and film, asking who owns the story.
Mohamed Elkadhi, Chair of the 2026 judges, said: "The novels included in this year's longlist are a microcosm of the contemporary Arab literary scene in all its richness and variety. Many of the novels turn inward, exploring the private worlds of distinctive and unforgettable characters experiencing psychological crises and struggling to adapt to lived reality.
"History, too, figures prominently in works that evoke the recent or distant past with striking immediacy, probing its reverberations in the present.
"Questions of identity also recur, framed against the backdrop of war, conflict, migration, revolution and the uneven rhythms of social and urban change. While some writers adopt realism and classical structures, a greater number blur the boundaries between the real and the extraordinary.
"Their narratives employ multiple narrators, streams of consciousness, and fragmented structures to reflect the relativity of the universe. Digging deep into the human psyche, they portray the pain suffered by those who feel isolated and alienated from reality, as they strive to uncover a truth distinct to that commonly accepted, moving in the orbits of the repressed and the unspoken."
Professor Yasir Suleiman, Chair of the Board of Trustees, remarked: "Despite their different voices and diverse themes, most of the novels on this year's longlist share a common impulse: they turn to the past to make sense of the fractures of a betrayed present. Their return to the past is not an exercise in nostalgia, often expressed in Arab societies through the sentimental cliché of 'the good old days. Instead, it is a way of approaching the dystopia these societies are living through today.
"What is striking about this tendency - seen through the local settings and contemporary realities depicted in the novels - is the convergence of perspectives that emerges from their narratives. It is as if they whisper to the reader from Yemen to Tangier transiting through Baghdad, Beirut and Cairo: 'In our struggles, we are all Arabs. How long will we have to wait?'"
The six shortlisted titles will be chosen by the judges and announced in February 2026 in Bahrain.
Each of the six shortlisted finalists will receive $10,000, with a further $50,000 going to the winner.