Tunisian authors Ahmed Somai, Ramzi Mahouachie, Ali Assalah Moula and Fatma Baccouch, the only woman in the race, are preselected by the jury of the 18th edition of Sheikh Zayed Book Award – SZBA 2023- 2024 in the long lists of the categories Translation, Literature, Art Criticism and Contribution to the Development of Nations.
The Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center (ALC), United Arab Emirates, recently revealed the long list in the categories of Literature, Young Author, Children’s Literature and Arabic Manuscript Publishing. Writers Habib Selmi and Hassouna Mosbahi (Literature), Houssemeddine Chachia and Chiheb Abdallah (Young Authors) and writer Mounira El Daraoui (Children’s Literature) are the Tunisians preselected with 5 titles, all published in 2023.
The new titles on the long list were shared on Tuesday on the website of this prestigious Emirati prize, which is one of the most important world prizes devoted to Arab literature and culture.
The Translation category includes 11 titles from seven Ar
ab countries: Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Libya. The shortlisted works were translated into Arabic from four languages, namely English, French, German and Italian. Tunisia is represented by «Al-Ilm al-Jadeed» (La Scienza Nuova – The New Science), by author Giambattista Vico, translated from Italian into Arabic by Ahmed Somai, published by Adab Publishing and Distribution, in 2022.
The Contribution to the Development of Nations category includes 9 titles from six Arab countries: the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia with 3 works all published in 2023.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse