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The Board of Trustees of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, also known as the ‘Arabic Booker’, have announced that the submission criteria for participation will change with effect from their 11th edition in 2018. The new system will feature ‘apportion’ to ensure fairness among publishers as well as enable the organisers to better reach its goals in recognising contemporary Arabic creative writing.
The organisers of the award approved modifying the submission process, keeping in mind the submission history of the publishers who have previously entered the competition. Under the new system of apportion, the submission eligibility of each competitor will differ based on how many times the publisher’s books have been longlisted for the Prize over the past five years.
According to the revised rule, the number of works a publisher can send in will depend on their track record of submissions to International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Publishers who have not been longlisted previously will be allowed to submit a single work, while those who have been longlisted on about a couple of occasions before are eligible for two entries. Similarly, the submission criteria will change for publishers who have been longlisted four of five times earlier, who will be able to send in up to four novels.
The longlisted books for the 10th edition of International Prize for Arabic Fiction will be announced on 16 January 2017, and the shortlisted works on 16 February 2017 in Algiers. The winner will be declared on 25 April 2017 before the opening ceremony of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF) 2017.
