Maybe the Arabic publishing ecosystem is finally picking up speed: the Sheikh Zayed Book Award has received the largest number of nominations in its history, with the total of 4,240 up by more than a third over last year.
It helps of course that the award has significant monetary value – as well as the kudos and a gold medal, the winners of the ten categories each get AED 750,000. But the 34 per cent increase in nominations still looks like a significant step forward. It certainly suggests that the SZBA, which is organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (itself part of DCT Abu Dhabi), is being recognised as the premier accolade in Arabic publishing. It has taken nearly two decades to get to this position, which to some extent reflects an often difficult and highly fragmented market for Arabic publishing.
It does look as though things are getting better for the publishing business. That certainly applies to the local book fairs; Sharjah International Book Fair, which is currently live, has 2,200 exhibitors and says it’s expecting a whopping two million visitors in its 12 day run (it ends 12 November). Back in May, ADIBF had 1,300 exhibitors and recorded more than 308,000 visitors in six days.
Nominations for the 18th Sheikh Zayed Book Award came from 74 countries – 19 Arab and 55 others. A quarter of the them were in the Young Author category, which bodes well: ‘young’ is defined as under 40, which stretches the definition a bit, but at least it demonstrates that younger writers are finding a voice. So are women: a quarter of the nominations came from female authors, 1,182 of them – that compares to 1,042 in last year’s award and 915 the year before that.
The Award aims to recognise “outstanding writers, intellectuals, and publishers” as well as “young talent whose writing and translation in humanities objectively enriches Arab intellectual, cultural, literary and social life”. So there are some academic and even esoteric categories (like ‘Contribution to the Development of Nations‘ and ‘Editing of Arabic Manuscripts’) as well as some practicalities (translation, publishing and technology).
Apart from the Young Authors, the big ones are for Literature and Children’s Literature. The first of those, defined broadly as including poetry, short stories, novels, biographies, plays “and other types of arts”, racked up 1,032 nominations, 24 per cent of the total. That’s a big jump from 688 last year.
Children’s Literature received 437 submissions, 10 per cent of the total. This category covers just about anything addressed to the younger reader (“fictional stories or simplified factual historical and scientific narratives”) but doesn’t explicitly cater for the burgeoning young adult fiction genre, which seems a missed opportunity.
The question of digital content must be exercising the award’s organisers, however. It’s true that several Arabic countries are working hard to increase the levels of reading among the young, especially in the UAE, and school curricula are being improved to remove the stigma attached to schoolbooks as dull, obligatory and unengaging.
But the lines between literature and other forms of creativity, entertainment and information are getting blurred. Last year Rafid Fatani, MENA regional general manager for Amazon, told a local conference session on AI and the Future of Publishing that less than 1 percent of on line content is in Arabic; this has implications for emerging technologies such as AI, but it also has impact on the opportunities for consumption.
As it stands, the SZBA’s Publishing and Technology category aims to honour “outstanding innovators from literary, cultural sectors within the technology arena”; that would seem to be a suitable starting point for developing a tech-friendly approach to literature, perhaps allowing for audiobooks and mixed-media publishing leading up to AI-driven ‘personalised’ novels with online delivery. It’s not that paper publishing and conventional distribution through bookshops, libraries and schools have had their day; but they are no longer the only games in town …
The nominations are currently being evaluated. A longlist should be announced later this month, with a shortlist next March and the announcement of the winners in April 2024.
Be the first to comment