UPDATE: AES Alumnus Shortlisted for 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, the Arabic Booker Prize!

Congratulations to Mohammed Hasan Alwan, Academic English Studies (AES) alumnus!  Mohammed’s novel The Beaver has recently been shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), known as the Arabic Booker. The Prize is run with the support of the Booker Prize Foundation of London.    

Sinan Antoon, Jana Elhassan, Mohammed Hassan Alwan, Ibrahim Issa, Saud Alsanousi and Hussein Al-Wad are today, Wednesday 9 January, announced as the six authors shortlisted for the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Their names were revealed at a press conference held in Tunis, Tunisia, by the previously anonymous Judging Panel, chaired by the Egyptian writer and academic Galal Amin.

This year’s shortlist reveals a number of varied thematic concerns, which lie at the heart of the Arab reality of today. These include, amongst others: religious extremism; the lack of tolerance and rejection of the Other; the split between thought and behaviour in the contemporary Arab personality; the Arab woman’s frustration and her inability to break through the social wall built around her; the laying bare of the corrupt reality and hypocrisy on social, religious, political and sexual levels.  For further information and to read an excerpt, see:  http://www.arabicfiction.org/news.241.html

The IPAF is one of the most prestigious and important literary prizes in the Arab world.  Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage the readership of high quality Arabic literature internationally through the translation and publication of winning and shortlisted novels in other major languages. (http://www.arabicfiction.org/news.206.html)