The overall winner will be announced on April 28, 2024, and they will walk away with $50,000.
By Hope Ibiale
Egyptian writer, Ahmed al-Morsi, has been announced as a shortlisted writer for the 2024 edition of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. He is shortlisted for his work, Gambling on the Honour of Lady Mitsy.
Other shortlisted works include Eissa Nasiri’s The Mosaicist, Basim Khandaqji’s A Mask, the Colour of the Sky, Osama Al-Eissa’s The Seventh Heaven of Jerusalem, Raja Alem’s Bahbel: Makkah Multiverse, and Rima Bali’s Suleiman’s Ring.
The overall winner will be announced on April 28, 2024, and they will walk away with $50,000.
While commenting on the shortlist, jury chair Nabil Suleiman said, “The shortlisted novels offer us a profound fictional excavation of history, in which the distant and more recent past and future intersect. With passion and perception, the novels engage with the wars, exiles and uprisings endured by the Arab world at the current moment. Their rich creative worlds are not limited to their localities but span the globe, highlighting common struggles. Their visions and aesthetic expressions are diverse, tinged with self-awareness and imaginative verve.”
The 2024 prize will be judged by Syrian writer, Nabil Suleiman alongside Palestinian writer, Sonia Nimr, Czech academic, František Ondráš, Egyptian critic and journalist Mohamed Shoair, and Sudanese writer and journalist Hammour Ziada.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction, also known as “the Arabic Booker”, was established in 2008 to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing. The literary prize also aims to encourage the translation of Arabic literature into other major languages. Over the years, the literary prize has been established as one of the most prestigious prizes in the Arab world.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction currently is sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre and supported by the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
Ahmed al-Morsi is an Egyptian novelist and journalist. Gambling on the Honour of Lady Mitsy is his third novel.
