Abu Dhabi: Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA), organized by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center (ALC), part of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), has received the largest number of nominations in its history.
This year’s edition attracted 4,240 nominations from 74 countries, including 19 Arab nations. The submissions were evaluated by members of the SZBA Reading Panel Committee, which was chaired by Dr. Ali bin Tamim, SZBA Secretary-General and Chairman of the ALC, and included Mr. Saeed Hamdan Al Tunaiji, Executive Director of the ALC, and Prof. Dr. Bilal Orfali, member of the ALC Scientific Advisory Committee. The meetings were held in the presence of Mr. Abdulrahman Mohamed Al Naqbi, Director of the ALC’s Literary Awards Department.
“The remarkable increase in the number of submissions we received this year reflects the growing prominence of the award worldwide. We look forward to continuing along this path to enrich human knowledge, spotlighting works that elevate humanity and our collective intellectual and cultural heritage,” Dr. Tamim added.
This year, Egypt topped the list of participating countries in terms of nominations received, followed by Iraq, Morocco, Algeria, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Palestine, and the UAE. Outside the Arab region, India led the list, followed by the US, UK, France, Spain, and Germany.
Of the award’s 10 categories, the Young Author category received the highest number of submissions with a total of 1,078 nominations, accounting for 25 percent of the total, an increase from 954 entries in the previous edition. The Literature category came in second with 1,032 submissions, making up 24 percent of the nominations, which was an increase from 688 last year.
Last year, the award added a new category called Editing of Arabic Manuscripts, which is dedicated to the editing of Arabic heritage manuscripts following scientific methods within any field of knowledge in Arabic traditions, including specialized and general lexicons.