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The winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2020 will be announced from 12 noon (BST) / 3pm (GST) on Tuesday 14 April 2020.
The announcement will be made digitally via a special video announcement hosted on the IPAF website. Please tune in to watch the announcement on the IPAF YouTube Channel here.
The 2020 shortlist, listed in alphabetical order by author surname, is as follows:
Author |
Title |
Country of Origin |
Publisher |
Abdelouahab Aissaoui |
The Spartan Court |
Algeria |
Dar Mim |
Khalil Alrez |
The Russian Quarter |
Syria |
Difaf Publishing |
Jabbour Douaihy |
The King of India |
Lebanon |
Dar Al Saqi |
Said Khatibi |
Firewood of Sarajevo |
Algeria |
Al-Ikhtilef |
Alia Mamdouh |
The Tank |
Iraq |
Al-Mutawassit |
Youssef Ziedan |
Fardeqan – the Detention of the Great Sheikh |
Egypt |
Dar al-Shorouk |
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) is the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. It is given annually to a novel in Arabic which the judges consider to be the best of that year. Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage the readership of high quality Arabic literature internationally through the translation and publication of winning and shortlisted novels in other languages.
The 2019 winner was Hoda Barakat’s The Night Mail.
The Prize is sponsored by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT) and run with the support, as its mentor, of the Booker Prize Foundation in London.