2022 is a record-breaking year for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. The annual prize received more than 3000 submissions from 55 countries this year, in a testament to its increasing importance and influence in the global networkof Arabic literature and culture.

Known as the Arab World’s Nobel Prize, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award showcases outstanding contributions to Arabic literature, the humanities, science, and culture. The Award’s nine prize categories, ranging from Children’s Literature to Literary and Art Criticism, and its Translation Grant, moreover, showcase the dynamic fields of translation from and into Arabic, and of European and North American Arabic studies.

In its ambition to connect with wider academic audiences, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award is organising a series of four events between April and June in collaboration with SOAS, University of London, famous for its commitment to and its reach in the global south. Professor Wen-chin Ouyang, with her connections in North America, Europe and East Asia, will host and moderate the events, bringing to this series an additional multilingual and cross-regional flare. The interlocutors and guests include shortlisted and invited authors, translators, cultural thought leaders and scholars from around the world. All events will be bilingual (Arabic/English) and online.

Panel Discussion:

Prof. Wen-chin Ouyang (moderator)
Michael Cooperson – author and translator, professor of Arabic language and literature at the University of California, 2021 SZBA winner for the category Translation
Robert Irwin, Middle East editor of TLS
Huda Fakhreddine – Associate Professor of Arabic Literature at the University of
Pennsylvania and literary translator
Video Rating: / 5