{"id":4886,"date":"2011-03-09T12:08:37","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T08:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=4886"},"modified":"2011-03-09T12:09:50","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T08:09:50","slug":"countdown-to-the-international-prize-for-arabic-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/middle-east-art\/middle-east-literature\/countdown-to-the-international-prize-for-arabic-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Countdown to the International Prize for Arabic Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF, or \u201cArabic Booker\u201d) organizers announced today<\/a> that the six authors shortlisted for the 2011 prize were scheduled to arrive in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The authors were scheduled for an intensive seven-day tour. The winner, who will take home $50,000, will be announced next Monday. Runners-up will each be given $10,000.<\/p>\n

For those who haven\u2019t followed along, the six shortlisted authors are:<\/p>\n

Raja Alem for <\/a>The Doves\u2019 Necklace<\/a><\/em> (Saudi Arabia) <\/em>?<\/p>\n

Miral al-Tahawy, for her <\/a>Brooklyn Heights<\/a><\/em> (Egypt)<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Bensalam Himmich,\u00a0 for <\/a>My Tormentor<\/a><\/em> (Morocco\u2019s Minister of Culture)<\/p>\n

Mohammad Achaari for <\/a>The Arch and the Butterfly<\/a><\/em> ? (former Moroccan Minister of Culture)<\/p>\n

Khaled al-Berry for <\/a>Middle Eastern Dance<\/a><\/em> <\/em> (Egypt, not the minister of anything)<\/p>\n

Amir Taj Al-Sir f or his The Hunter of the Chrysalises<\/em><\/a> (Sudan)<\/p>\n

The award has stirred controversy this year as other years, with many prominent authors\u2014such as Egyptian authors Gamal al-Ghitani and Radwa Ashour\u2014refusing to be nominated for the prize. Al-Ghitani questioned the philosophy and criteria of the literary prize.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the award goes on. To celebrate the authors\u2019 arrival, a \u201cbook of excerpts\u201d from the prize\u2019s six shortlisted novels will be published later this week. Although the Emirates News Agency doesn\u2019t mention which English- and Arabic-language newspapers will publish the excerpts, last year excerpts were published in The National<\/em> and Al Ittihad<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The prize is now in its fourth year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M. LYNX QUALEY: The award has stirred controversy this year as other years, with authors such as Gamal al-Ghitani and Radwa Ashour refusing to be nominated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":4887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[202,1857,18300,5263,427,18291,18334,5262,2263,18275,221,104],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}