Sheikh Zayed Book Award Accepts Nominations in Five Languages

Abu Dhabi June 19, 2016 – Coinciding with the launch of its 11th cycle for 2016/2017,  the Sheikh Zayed Book Award will accept nominations, in five different languages; English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German; for its category “Arab Culture in Other Languages”. Previously in the category, the Award limited nominations to works in a total of three languages, with English language being constant while the other two change with every cycle. Commenting on this decision, Dr Ali Bin Tamim said: “During our various interactions with leading cultural expert institutions across Europe, we realized the considerable amount of production of works that falls within the category addressing Arabic Culture from a foreign perspective. Hence we opted to include those five languages as a standard for every session which we believe will provide an opportunity for a wider pool of scholarly contributions to take part towards winning.” Commenting on the challenges of increasing the number of languages, Bin Tamim added; “It is inevitable that adding new languages to the nominations will amplify the workload handled by the scientific committee throughout the selection process, both in terms of quantity of works and the variety of languages to be reviewed. Yet still, we believe it is worth the challenge as it represents a constructive step towards expanding the circle of choice and quality of works selected in each cycle.” As for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award’s plans for the next phase, Mr. Saeed Hamdan, the Award’s Manager, said: “We have several participations lined up for this year, both at flagship international book fairs, in addition to key cultural seminars around the world. Our ultimate aim remains to open new channels of communication with global cultural institutions and build our relations towards establishing for strategic partnerships that helps us promote Arabic culture to an ever growing audience base.” It is noteworthy to mention that the call for nominations for the eleventh award cycle is on-going until October 1st of this year. Applicants can visit the award’s website (www.zayedawrd.ae ) for full details on how to participate.