Huge Response To Katara Prize For Arabic Novel
The organising committee of the first ever Katara Prize for Arabic Novel yesterday announced it had received 220 entries ahead of the October 31 deadline.
The entries, which comprise published and unpublished Arabic novels, will vie for the prestigious awards, which include cash prizes and the opportunity to be translated into English, Spanish and French and be marketed internationally.
Khalid Abdulrahim Al Sayed, general supervisor of the Katara Prize for Arabic Novel, said since the launch of the Prize, the committee had received 135 unpublished and 85 published novels from various Arab countries.
The massive interest indicates the importance of the Prize and the vital position of culture and literature in the Arab world as Arab novelists are already crossing borders, Al Sayed added.
He explained that there was significant participation from GCC citizens, particularly from Saudi Arabia, and also from Iraq despite the difficult situation in that country, and from Egypt, Morocco and Algeria. Famous novelists have also joined the competition with their distinguished works.
The first edition of the Prize, he said, had attracted a good number of women, as around a quarter of the entries are by women.
He added that the Prize was the first of its kind that linked novels, plays and translated works and aimed to ensure the presence of Arabic novels at the Arab and international levels, motivating outstanding Arab novelists and innovative writers to move towards new horizons of creativity and excellence. This, he said, will increase people’s interest in reading Arabic novels, and thus increase the level of cultural awareness and understanding.
The Katara Prize for Arabic Novel is committed to the values of independence, transparency, honesty and fairness in the selection of the winners, he stressed. The organising committee will be responsible for translating the winning works into English, Spanish and French, and turning one of the novels into a drama. It will also publish and market the novels.
He said the organising committee was collaborating with different Arab entities, including the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation, Arab Publishers Union and the Union of Arab Writers to give the Prize a pan-Arab dimension.
The aim of the Prize is to make the Arab novel an area of innovation and excellence and turn Katara into a platform for creativity which will bring Arab novels to the world stage as well as create communication between different cultures by getting these works translated into other languages, he said.
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