Selected from a total 469 nominations, these are the shortlists of three of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award’s nine categories in its 17th edition.

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

See also: Sheikh Zayed Shortlists: Literature, Young Author, Criticism

Winners To Be Honored in May

Following our report earlier this month on the first set of three category shortlists to be released by the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in its 17th edition, we today (March 20) have shortlists released over the weekend for three more of the nine categories in the program: Translation, Arab Culture in Other Languages, and Publishing and Technology.

These total a selection of 11 submissions–five in the category of Arab Culture in Other Languages, and three each for Translation and for Publishing and Technology.

As Publishing Perspectives readers know, the complete list of categories in the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, all told, comprises:

• Arab Culture in Other Languages
• Children’s Literature
• Literature
• Literary and art Criticism
• Translation
• Young Author
• Publishing and Technology
• Contribution to the Development of Nations
• Cultural Personality of the Year

Longlistings in this iteration of the award were issued late last year, and you can review those here, and here, and here.  The first round of shortlists—Literature, Young Author, and Criticism—were released on March 10, and our coverage of those is here.

We expect a third announcement of two more categories’ shortlists—Children’s Literature and Contribution to the Development of Nations—to follow, and we will have that for  you when they arrive. The selection of the ninth category, Cultural Personality of the Year, is made without public longlisting and shortlisting procedures.

The Zayed award, you’ll recall, is organized and administered by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center under the direction of Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, and it’s among the richest in the world. The program carries a purse of 750,000 United Arab Emirates dirhams (US$204,209) in each of its eight book categories and is worth a total of 7 million dirhams (US$1.9 million), which includes a special Cultural Personality of the Year Category.

Sheikh Zayed Award Shortlist: Culture in Other Languages

These five entries are in French, Spanish, and English.

The category this year received a total 186 nominations.

• The Rise of the Arabic Book by German author Beatrice Gruendler, published in English by Harvard University Press in 2020
•  The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Egypt by Egyptian author Omnia El Shakry, published in English by Princeton University Press in 2017
•  De l’autre côté des croisades: L’Islam entre croisés et Mongols (On the Other Side of the Crusades: Islam Between Crusaders and Mongols) by French author Gabriel Martinez Gros, published in French by Passés Composés in 2021
•  L’invention du cadi. La justice des musulmans, des juifs et des chrétiens aux premiers siècles de l’islam (The Invention of the Cadi: The Justice of Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the First Centuries of Islam) by French historian Mathieu Tillier, published in French by Editions de la Sorbonne in 2017
•  Los moriscos antiguos murcianos: Expulsión, vuelta y permanencia (1609-1634) (The Ancient Murcian Moors: Expulsion, Return, and Permanence, 1609-1634) by Spanish author José Pascual Martínez, issued in Spanish by Publicacions de la Universitat de Valencia in 2022.

Sheikh Zayed Award Shortlist: Translation

The longlist for the Translation category featured 11 contenders, from which these three have been selected for the shortlist.

The first two are translations from French to Arabic. The third is a translation from English to Arabic. The category this year drew 230 nominations.

• Sarraq al-Kalimat: Bahth fi al-Intihal wa-Eilm at-Tahleel al-Nafsani wal-Fikr (Voleurs De Mots: Essai Sur Le Plagiat, La Psychanalyse et La Pensée) by Michel Schneider, translated by Abdelaziz Chebil from Tunisia, and published by Dar Zayneb Publishing in 2022
• Al-Imbratoriya al-Khatabiya: Sinaat al-Khutaba wal-Hajaj (L’Empire Rhétorique: Rhétorique et Argumentationd) by Chaim Perelman, translated by Lhoussine Banouhachim from Morocco, and published by Dar Alkitab Aljadeed in 2022
• Al-Ibara wa-al-Mi’na: Dirasat fi Nathariyat al-A’amal al-Lughawiya (Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts) by John R. Searle, translated by Chokri Al Saadi from Tunisia, and published by the ministry of cultural affairs, the Tunisian Institute for Translation in 2021

Sheikh Zayed Award Shortlist: Publishing and Technology

There are three shortlisted publishers here, from an initial pool of 53 nominations for the Publishing and Technology category.

• Actes Sud’s Sindbad Publishing, France
• ElAin Publishing, Egypt
• The Institute of Arabic Manuscripts, Egypt

In 2022, the Zayed Award returned to its physical awards ceremony at Louvre Abu Dhabi during the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, after providing digital editions of the program during earlier stages of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

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More from Publishing Perspectives on the Sheikh Zayed Book Award is here, more on the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center is here, more on Arabic literature is here, and more on translation is here. More from us on publishing and book awards in the international industry is here. 

Publishing Perspectives is the world media partner of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.