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4 Arab Female Writers On The International Prize for Arabic Fiction’s Longlist

Good luck to these inspiring wordsmiths…

Comprising six novels, the shortlist for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) 2021 will be revealed at an online event on March 29. Before the major announcement, we highlight the female authors in contention for the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. Their works, all published in Arabic between July 1, 2019 and 31 August, 2020, have been rightfully included in the longlist of 16 novels.

The selected novels on the longlist were chosen from 121 entries. This year’s judging panel is chaired by Lebanese poet and writer Chawki Bazih and includes Moroccan writer and translator Mohammed Ait Hanna and Safa Jubran, a Lebanese university lecturer and academic. Yemeni writer Ali Al-Muqri and Ayesha Sultan, an Emirati writer and journalist, are also acting as judges.

Now in its 14th edition, the aim of the IPAF is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage the readership of high quality Arabic literature internationally through the translation and publication of winning and shortlisted novels in other major languages. A prize of $50,000 will be awarded to the ultimate winner.

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Mansoura Ez Eldin

Egyptian novelist and short story writer Mansoura Ez Eldin has had her works translated into over 10 languages. In 2009, she was selected as one of the best 39 Arab writers under 40 by the Beirut 39 project. Ez Eldin is the author of three short story collections and five novels, including “Mariam's Maze,” “Emerald Mountain” and “Shadow Play.” “Beyond Paradise,” which won awards at the Cairo and Sharjah Book Fairs and earned Al-Multaqa Prize for the Arabic Short Story and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, was IPAF-shortlisted in 2010. She works as Deputy Editor of the Egyptian weekly cultural magazine “Akhbar al-Adab,” as well as an editor for  its books section. Ez Eldin, who has had articles published in  “The New York Times” and “A Public Space,” was a mentor of the annual IPAF Nadwa (writing workshop) in 2010 and 2011.

This year, she has been longlisted for “The Orchards of Basra,” a story set in two different time periods. In present-day Minya, Egypt, Hisham Khatab is a young manuscripts dealer who is passionate about old books. This leads him to interpret a dream in “The Great Book of Interpretation of Dreams,” ascribed to Ibn Sirin, and believe he was someone called Yazid bin Abihi, who lived in the 2nd hijri century (8th century AD) in Basra, Iraq. The dream introduces the reader to important figures from that era, including Wasil bin Ata, Al-Hasan al-Basri, and others like Mujeeba, the wife of Yazid and her lover ‘Adi bin Malek, the copier of manuscripts from Iraq. Plus, there's Khatab, his mother Leila and friend Mirvat from contemporary Egypt. Despite the many voices telling their stories and the differences in time and place, the characters all have much in common: their belief in signs, and an area of guilt in their lives or a point at which their lives radically changed. 

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