Sheikh Zayed Book Award Receives Nominations from the Academic World

Abu Dhabi –Academics from Arab and Foreign Universities have shown wide interest in Sheikh Zayed Book Award’s Eighth edition, as the Award continues to accept nominations in its nine categories for the year 2014. Officials from Sheikh Zayed Book award were present during the meetings of the General Union of Arab Writers at its Permanent Bureau in Abu Dhabi between 3 and 5 June to communicate nomination rules with Arab novelists, writers and creative authors who attended. The collective monetary value of the Award’s categories stands at around 2 million dollars. The Award opened the door to competition on the 15th of last month in nine categories, namely: Best Contribution to the Development of the Country, Children's Literature, The Young Author Award, Translation, Literature, Fine Arts, The Best Technology in the Field of Culture, Publishing and Distribution, and the Cultural Personality of the year Award. The nominations will be accepted through 15 October, 2013. Once completed and signed, the application forms should be submitted to the Sheikh Zayed Book Award Offices along with the Candidate's Resume, Passport copy, Personal photo, and five copies of the nominated work in a book format - works nominated for the Award of “Publishing and Cultural Technologies” can be in digital format. For cultural personality of the year award, applicants should be nominated by academic, research and cultural institutions, by literary associations and universities or by three intellectually and culturally prominent figures. For the other eight categories, applicants are requested to fill in the Nomination Form in person. All nominated works must have been published in the last two years and shouldn’t be previously awarded by an international/ prominent Prize. The work must be written in Arabic, except for works nominated for the Translation Award (they could be translated either from or to Arabic), and the works nominated for the newly devised category for “Arabic Culture in Other Languages” which  can be in English, German or Chinese for the seventh session. Actively the richest literary competition in the world, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award was established in memory of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan who served as the ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the UAE for more than 30 years. Since its launch in 2007, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award has succeeded in fostering greater scholarship and creativity by recognising and rewarding significant cultural achievements to Arabic culture, actively changing the Arab literary landscape. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is an independent cultural award established under the patronage and support of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and is now celebrating its 7th year. This year has seen 1262 nominations across all 9 categories, doubling over last session’s record. Back in April, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award announced winners of its 7th session, with Dr. Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad Al Tayyeb on top of the list as “Cultural Personality of the Year”. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab from Lebanon won the 'Contribution to the Development of Nations' Award for her book Contemporary Arab Thought (Al Fikr al 'arabi al mu'aser), published by Centre for Arab Unity Studies, Beirut 2012;Adil Hadjami from Morocco was named winner of the Young Author Award for his book 'Falsafat Jeel Deleuze' (Deleuze philosophy on Existentialism and Difference) published by Dar Toubkal, Casablanca 2012; 'Translation' Award went to Fathi  Meskini from Tunisia for his book “Being and Time (German: Sein und Zeit, 1927)” published by Dar al Kitab Al Jadid , Beirut 2012; Abdullah Ibrahim from Iraq won the 'Literary and Art Criticism' Award for his book 'Al Takhayol Al Tarikhi' (Historic Visualization) published by Arab Association for Studies and Publishing, Beirut 2011; writer and critic Marina Warner from UK won the 'Arab Culture in Non-Arabic Languages' Award for her book 'Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights', published by Vintage Books (2012) and Chatto and Windus in 2011; and finally 'Publishing and Technology' Award went to National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature, Kuwait. Since 2007 the Award witnessed more than 42 winners representing literary and cultural figures or institutions from around the World. China, UK, Germany, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, South Korea are some of the winners' country representatives. Categories of the award include Contribution to the Development of Nations, Children’s Literature [including adolescents books],  Young Author, Translation,  Literature, Literary and Art Criticism,  Arab Culture in non-Arabic Language, Publishing and Technology, Cultural Personality of the Year (Open to individuals and organizations)