The General Foundation for the Cultural Village “Katara” announced the winners of the Katara Award for Arabic Fiction in its tenth session, 2024, today, in a ceremony at the Opera House in Katara, in the presence of a number of ministers, ambassadors, representatives of diplomatic missions, a large number of writers, intellectuals, media professionals, and a large audience interested in cultural affairs.
The winners in the published Arabic novels category were: Alaa Hleihel from Palestine for his novel “Seven Letters to Umm Kulthum,” Muhammad Tarazi from Lebanon for his novel “Silencer Microphone,” and Youssef Hussein from Egypt for his novel “Pawns and Nishan.” The value of each award is 30,000 US dollars, in addition to translating the winning novels into English.
In the unpublished novels category, the winners were: Kouider Maimouni from Algeria for his novel “El Camino de la Muerte,” Lisa Khader from Syria for her novel “The Wall of Scandal,” and Yassin Kani from Morocco for his novel “A B Th.” The value of each award is $30,000, and the winning works will be printed and translated into English.
In the category of studies dealing with novelist research and criticism, 3 critics won: Dr. Belkacem Aissani from Algeria for his study “Novelist Thought,” and Dr. Bushaib Al-Sauri from Morocco for his study “Imagining Identity in the Arabic Novel,” and Dr. Hashim Mirghani from Sudan for his study “The Novel is a Theater for Controversy and Reconstruction of Identities.” The value of each award is $30,000, and the award committee is responsible for printing, publishing, and marketing the studies.
As for the boys’ novel category, the following winners were: Abu Bakr Hammadi from Algeria for his novel “I Call Libra,” Shaima Ali Gamal El-Din from Egypt for her novel “Beit Rima,” and Alaa Al-Jaber from Iraq for his novel “The Land of Oranges and Olives.” The value of each award is $15,000 for each winner, which will be printed and published.
In the unpublished historical novel category, Dhia Jubaili from Iraq won for his novel “The Knowledgeable Narrative in What Al-Tabari Did Not Narrate – The Zanj Revolution.”
In the published Qatari novel category, Dr. Kaltham Jabr Al-Kuwari won for her novel “Freej Bin Dirham.”
In his speech at the ceremony, Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al-Sulaiti, Director General of the Cultural Village Foundation Katara, expressed his sincere congratulations to the winners of the Katara Award for Arabic Fiction in its tenth edition, noting that this award was launched by the General Foundation of the Cultural Village Katara in 2014, with the aim of consolidating the presence of Arabic novels. Distinguished Arab and international literature, and encouraging and appreciating creative Arab novelists. To motivate them to move forward towards broader horizons of creativity and excellence.
Dr. Al-Sulaiti said that the city of the novel “Katara” today celebrates the International Novel Week, which Katara had a contribution to adopting by UNESCO during the period from October 13 to 20 of each year. We also celebrate the tenth anniversary of the launch of the Katara Prize for the Arabic Novel, which was able to Within a decade, we brought the Arabic novel to new spaces, by addressing many of the problems that limited the spread of the Arabic novel, including the difficulties of publishing and translating into languages other than Arabic, as the numerous Katara Prize for Arabic Novel initiatives made it possible to link the novel, translation, and drama. It also contributed to the emergence of promising literary talents who benefited from the opportunities to publish and market the winning novels and translate them into English and French.
The Director General of Katara considered that the fact that the Arab Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ALECSO) chose Katara as the “City of Novel” as the “City of Novel” is a culmination of Katara’s continuous efforts to support the progress and development of the Arabic novel as it has the first place in our modern literature.
Within the framework of the Katara Festival for the Arabic Novel, a symposium entitled “The Arabic Novel in the Light of Artificial Intelligence” was held today in Hall 12, in which the novelist Dr. Wasini Al-Araj discussed the limits of artificial intelligence in novelistic imagination, while the novelist Dr. Amir Taj Al-Sir spoke about what artificial intelligence can produce in narratives. Novelist Ibrahim Abdel Majeed discussed current and absent issues related to artificial intelligence and the novel.
The “Boys’ Novels and Fine Art” workshop also concluded its work in Hall 12. The participants' creativity was presented to visitors.
Starting tomorrow until the end of the Katara Arabic Novel Festival on October 20, the activities will be limited to the Katara Book Fair in its second edition, which is held on the sidelines of the Katara Arabic Novel Festival with the participation of Qatari publishing houses, along with major local libraries, and the participation of a number of cultural and research institutions, in addition to… Four Kuwaiti publishing houses.