The 2023 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation
Winner Entries
The shortlist will be announced
on Friday, 1 December 2023
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The Society of Authors will announce on 1 December 2023 the shortlists for the Translation Prizes that they administer. The prizes are:
The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize, for translation from Arabic
The Scott Moncrieff Prize, for translation from French
The Goethe-Institut Award, for a translation of an extract from Hund, Wolf, Schakal
The Schlegel-Tieck Prize, for translation from German
The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation prize, for translation from Japanese
The Premio Valle Inclán, for translation from Spanish
The Bernard Shaw Prize, for translation from Swedish
The TA First Translation Prize, for a debut translation from any language
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The entries
In the eighteenth year of the prize there are now 20 entries, with one call-in by the judges just added, by 11 different publishers. They comprise 18 novels, one poetry collection, and one work that is a collection of testimonies. There are 18 authors (8 female and 10 male, and some have more than one entry). The entries are listed by title in alphabetical order of translator, with first translator listed when there are more than one. There are 18 translators altogether, 9 female and 9 male translators, some appearing more than once.
Sons of the People: The Mamluk Trilogy by Reem Bassiouney, translated by Roger Allen (Syracuse University Press)
Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth (Scribner, Simon & Schuster)
Kafka in Tangier by Mohammed Said Hjiouij, translated by Phoebe Bay Carter (Agora Publishing)
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Flowers in Flames by Amir Tag Elsir, translated by Raphael Cohen (Darf Publishers)
The Turban and the Hat by Sonallah Ibrahim, translated by Bruce Fudge (Seagull Books)
Firefly by Jabbour Douaihy, translated by Paula Haydar and Nadine Sinno (Seagull Books)
The King of India by Jabbour Douaihy, translated by Paula Haydar (Interlink Books)
What Have you Left Behind? by Bushra al-Maqtari, translated by Sawad Hussain (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
The Dispersal by Inaam Kachachi, translated by Inam Jaber (Interlink Books)
My Life is a Memory and Writing is the Way to Forget by Maha Autoom, translated by Kefah Jahjah (Al Haderoun Publishing House)
The Blue Light by Hussein Barghouthi, translated by Fady Joudah (Seagull Books)
Mister N by Najwa Barakat, translated by Luke Leafgren (And Other Stories)
Thunderbird Book One by Sonia Nimr, translated by M Lynx Qualey (University of Texas Press)
Thunderbird Book Two by Sonia Nimr, translated by M Lynx Qualey (University of Texas Press)
The Night Will Have Its Say by Ibrahim Al-Koni, translated by Nancy Roberts (Hoopoe an Imprint of AUC Press)
Waiting for the Past by Hadiya Hussein, translated by Barbara Romaine (Syracuse University Press)
The Bookseller’s Notebooks by Jalal Barjas, translated by Paul G. Starkey (Interlink Books)
The Drowning by Hammour Ziada, translated by Paul G. Starkey (Interlink Books)
Suleiman’s Ring by Sherif Meleka, translated by Raymond Stock (Hoopoe an Imprint of AUC Press)
The Disappearance of Mr. Nobody by Ahmed Taibaoui, translated by Jonathan Wright (Hoopoe an Imprint of AUC Press)
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The Prize is administered by the UK’s Society of Authors,
alongside the other UK literary translation prizes.