The Sheikh Zayed Book Award of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), part of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), has revealed the longlisted titles in the ‘Contribution to the Development of Nations’ and ‘Literary and Art Criticism’ categories for the 16th edition of the Awards.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA) jury is currently in the evaluation phase to draw up longlists of titles across the various categories. The ‘Contribution to the Development of Nations’ category received 290 submissions this year, an increase of 11% from the 262 applications last year. Meanwhile, ‘Literary and Art Criticism’ received 273 entries this year, marking a considerable growth of 37% compared to last year’s 199 submissions.

Seven titles made it onto the longlist for the ‘Contribution to the Development of Nations’ category, submitted from six Arab countries: Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

The longlist for the ‘Literary and Art Criticism’ category includes 11 titles from seven countries: Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and the UAE.

The SZBA will soon be announcing the longlisted entries for the remaining categories in the 2021/22 edition.

The SZBA honours the outstanding achievements of innovators and thinkers in literature, the arts, and humanities in Arabic and other languages. It aims to advance Arabic literature and culture, providing new opportunities for Arabic-language writers. Authors writing about Arab culture and civilisation in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian also are recognised by the Awards.