The longlist for the 2025 International Prize for Arab Fiction has been announced: 16 novels are in the running for the $50,000 prize, sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center. While works from Bahrain and Mauritania make the list for the first time, other nominated novels come from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, Iraq and the UAE, reported Arab News.
The longlist was selected from a total of 124 entries by a panel of five judges chaired by Egyptian scholar Mona Baker. She was joined on the panel by Moroccan scholar and critic Saeed Bengrad, Emirati critic and scholar Maryam Al-Hashimi, Lebanese researcher and scholar Bilal Orfali and Finnish translator Sampsa Peltonen.
A range of historical novels
In a statement, Baker said: “This year’s longlist is striking in its diversity of both subject matter and literary form. Some novels deal with women’s struggles to achieve their dreams in a patriarchal society that prevents them from living a full life. Others offer a nuanced portrait of religious and sectarian worlds, where extremism and dogma contrast with human compassion and understanding.
“The shortlist includes a range of historical novels that deal with both the recent and more distant past, such as the Abbasid era or the Inquisition and persecution of Muslims in Andalusia. There are also semi-autobiographical books and others that read like detective stories.
International Prize longlist
“Also explored are repressive regimes and their power to destroy the hopes and lives of ordinary people; some novelists paint a stark picture of this reality, while others use sarcasm and humour to make these difficult themes more accessible to the reader.” The longlist for the 2025 International Prize for Arabic Fiction:
- Aqeel Almusawi’s “The Weepers” (Bahrain)
- Inam Bioud’s “Houwariya” (Algeria)
- Rashid Al-Daif’s “What Zeina Saw and What She Didn’t” (Lebanon)
- Ahmed Fal Al-Din’s “Danshmand” (Mauritania)
- Jan Dost’s “The French Prisoner” (Syria)
- Sausan Jamil Hasan’s “Heiress of the Keys” (Syria)
- Iman Humaydan’s “Songs for the Darkness” (Lebanon)
- Azher Jirjees “The Valley of the Butterflies” (Iraq)
- Hasan Kamal’s “The Stolen Novel” (Egypt)
- Taissier Khalaf’s “The Andalusian Messiah” (Syria)
- Ahmed Al-Malawany’s “Happy Dreams” (Egypt)
- Mohamed Samir Nada’s “The Prayer of Anxiety” (Egypt)
- Nadia Najar’s “The Touch of Light” (United Arab Emirates)
- Haneen Al-Sayegh’s “The Women’s Charter” (Lebanon)
- Sumar Shihada’s “My Life Has Just Begun” (Syria)
- Ayman Ragab Taher’s “The Lamplighter” (Egypt)