Today's Edition
ABU DHABI (WAM)
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) has revealed the longlist of 16 novels in contention for the 2025 prize.
The longlist has been chosen from a total of 124 submissions by a panel of five judges chaired by Egyptian academic, Mona Baker.
Joining her on the panel are Moroccan academic and critic, Said Bengrad, Emirati critic and academic, Maryam Al Hashimi, Lebanese researcher and academic, Bilal Orfali, and Finnish translator, Sampsa Peltonen.
The selection includes three authors who have been previously longlisted by IPAF: Rashid al-Daif (2012, 2024), Sausan Jamil Hasan (2023) and Taissier Khalaf (2017), alongside one previously long- and shortlisted author, Azher Jirjees (2020, 2023 respectively).
The other twelve authors feature on the list for the first time: Aqeel Almusawi, Inam Bioud, Ahmed Fal Al Din, Jan Dost, Iman Humaydan, Hasan Kamal, Ahmed Al-Malawany, Mohamed Samir Nada, Nadia Najar, Haneen Al-Sayegh, Sumar Shihada, and Ayman Ragab Taher.
Baker, Chair of the 2025 judges, said that this year’s longlist is remarkable in its diversity of both theme and literary form.
Chair of the Board of Trustees, Professor Yasir Suleiman, stated that the longlist continues the trend of recent years of exploring the past to comment on the present from multiple perspectives.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is an annual literary prize for novels in Arabic, which will award $50,000 to the winner.
It is sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi.
The six shortlisted titles will be chosen by the judges and announced on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt.
The winner of the prize will be announced on Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Abu Dhabi.
This year, IPAF will launch its inaugural editing workshop, which aims to develop the skills of professionals in the Arab publishing world and encourage excellence in the industry.
It will take place from January 18 to 22 in Jordan, at the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation.
