The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi announces opening of submission period for next year’s edition of the prestigious literary award
Writers and publishers are being invited to submit their entries for next year’s Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA), the Arab world’s most prestigious literary award. The submission period for the 16th edition of the SZBA, organised by the Arabic Language Centre, part of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), will run from June until 1 October, 2021.
The 15th edition of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award received a record number of submissions, totalling 2,349 from 57 countries – an increase of 23% compared to the previous year. This brings the total number of submissions to have competed for the award’s nine categories since its inception to 19,095.
The categories for the 16th edition include Literature, Translation, Contribution to the Development of Nations, Arabic Culture in Other Languages, Children’s Literature, Literary and Art Criticism, Young Author, Publishing and Technology, and Cultural Personality of the Year.
The SZBA welcomes self-nominations from the authors themselves, or publishing houses can submit their book nominations after obtaining the authors’ written consent. The nominated original works must be written in Arabic, except the ‘Translation’ category, where it must be translated to or from Arabic. The other exception is the ‘Arabic Culture in Other Languages’ category, where the entries should be published in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish or Russian.
More information on electronic submission requirements and processes can be found at www.zayedaward.ae
