International Prize for Arabic Fiction

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) (الجائزة العالمية للرواية العربية), also known as "the Arabic Booker", is regarded as the most prestigious and important literary prize 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. In addition to the prize itself, IPAF supports other literary initiatives. In 2009, IPAF launched its inaugural nadwa (writers' workshop) for emerging writers of fiction in Arabic.

The prize is administered by the Booker Prize Foundation in London, and is currently funded by Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi (DCT).

Each year, the winner of the prize receives US$50,000, and the six shortlisted authors receive US$10,000 each.

Rules and entry
Full Rules of Entry are available to view here.

Trustees

 * Yasir Suleiman CBE, Professor of Arabic, University of Cambridge, Chair of Trustees
 * Evelyn Smith, Booker Prize Foundation, Company Secretary
 * Isobel Abulhoul OBE, CEO, Emirates Literature Foundation
 * Yassin Adnan, Moroccan journalist, broadcaster and writer
 * Abdulla Majed Al Ali, executive director of the UAE national archive, columnist, formerly involved in a number of cultural initiatives in the UAE, including the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, the Kalima Translation Project, the Abu Dhabi Book Fair and Abu Dhabi libraries
 * Nujoom Alghanem, poet, script writer and a multi-award-winning Emirati filmmaker
 * Rasheed El-Enany, Professor Emeritus of the University of Exeter
 * Omar Ghobash, Emirati author, businessman, and diplomat
 * Rana Idriss, Director of publisher Dar al-Adab, Beirut
 * Michel S. Moushabeck, Founder and President of Interlink Publishing Group, Inc., writer, editor, and musician, USA
 * Zaki Nusseibeh, UAE Minister of State
 * Sherif-Joseph Rizk, Director of publishing house Dar al-Tanweer, Egypt
 * Ahdaf Soueif, author and political and cultural commentator
 * Jonathan Taylor, former chair of the Booker Prize Foundation
 * Fleur Montanaro, Prize Administrator

Winners and nominees
= winner

2008
The winner was announced on 10 March 2008. The shortlist was announced on 29 January 2008, chosen from 131 entries.

2009
The winner was announced on 16 March 2009. The shortlist was announced on 10 December 2008. The longlist was announced on 11 November 2008, chosen from 121 entries.

2010
The winner was announced on 2 March 2010. The shortlist was announced on 15 December 2009. The longlist was announced on 17 November 2009, chosen from 115entries.

2011


The shortlist was announced 9 December 2010, chosen from a total of 123 submissions and a longlist of 16. The winners were announced on 14 March 2011, the eve of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. This marked the first time the award had been split, as well as the first female winner (Raja Alem).

2012
A total of 101 submissions from 15 countries were whittled down to a longlist of 13. This list was announced in November 2011. The final shortlist of six books was revealed on 11 January 2012. The winner was announced 27 March 2012.

2013
The longlist of 16 books was announced on 6 December 2012. The shortlist of six books was announced on 9 January 2013. The winner was announced on 23 April 2013.

2014
The longlist of 16 books was announced 7 January 2014. The shortlist of 6 books was announced 10 February 2014. The winner was announced 29 April 2014.

2015
The longlist. On 13 February 2015 the shortlist was announced. The winner was announced 6 May 2015.

2016
The longlist was announced on 12 January 2016. The winner was announced 26 April 2016.

2017
The winner was announced 25 April 2017.

2018
The longlist was announced on 17 January 2018. The winner was announced 24 April 2018.

2019
The shortlist was announced on 5 February 2019, chosen from a total of 134 submissions from 9 Arab countries. The shortlist titles

2020
The winner was announced on 14 April 2020. The shortlist was announced on 4 February 2020. The longlist was announced on 17 December 2019, chosen from 128 entries.

2021
The longlist was chosen on 1 March 2021, chosen from 121 entries. The shortlist was announced on 29 March 2021 and the winner on 25 May 2021.

Judges
The judges since 2008 are listed below:

2008

 * Feissal Darraj
 * Ghalia Qabbani
 * Mohammed Bennis
 * Mohammed Berrada
 * Paul Starkey
 * Samuel Shimon

2009

 * Fakhri Saleh
 * Hartmut Faehndrich
 * Mohammad al-Murr
 * Rasheed El-Enany
 * Youmna el Eid

2010

 * Taleb Alrefai
 * Raja' Ben Salamah
 * Saif al-Rahbi
 * Frédéric LaGrange

2011

 * Fadhil al-Azzawi
 * Munira Al-Fadhel
 * Isabella Camera D'Afflitto
 * Amjad Nasser
 * Said Yaktine

2012

 * Georges Tarabichi
 * Maudie Bitar
 * Hoda Elsadda
 * Huda al-Naimi
 * Gonzalo Fernández Parrilla

2013

 * Galal Amin
 * Sobhi al-Boustan
 * Ali Ferzat
 * Barbara Michalak-Pikulska
 * Zahia Smail Salhi

2014

 * Saad A. Albazei (Chair)
 * Ahmed Alfaitouri
 * Zhor Gourram
 * Abdullah Ibrahim
 * Mehmet Hakki Suçin

2015

 * Mourid Barghouti (Chair)
 * Ayman A. El-Desouky
 * Parween Habib
 * Najim A. Kadhim
 * Kaoru Yamamoto

2019

 * Chair: Charafdin Majdolin, Moroccan critic and academic
 * Fowziya Abu Khalid, Saudi Arabian poet, writer, academic and researcher i social and political issues
 * Zulaikha Aburisha, Jordanian poet and activist
 * Latif Zeitouni, Lebanese academic and literary critic
 * Zhang Hong Yi, Chinese translator and researcher

2020

 * Chair: Muhsin al-Musawi, an Iraqi literary critic and Professor of Classical and Modern Arabic Literature, Comparative and Cultural Studies at Columbia University
 * Pierre Abi Saab, a Lebanese critic, journalist and co-founder of the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper
 * Reem Magued, an Eqyptian broadcaster, television journalist and trainer in journalism and media
 * Amin Zaoui, an Algerian novelist who writes in both Arabic and French, and Professor of Comparative Literature and Contemporary Thought at the Central University of Algiers
 * Viktoria Zarytovskaya, a Russian academic, researcher and translator of numerous works of Arabic literature into Russian including Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad, winner of the prize in 2014

2021

 * Chair: Chawki Bazih, Lebanese poet and author
 * Mohammed Ait Hanna, a Moroccan writer, translator and lecturer of Philosophy at the Regional Centre for Teaching Careers and Training in Casablanca
 * Safa Jubran, a lecturer of Arabic Language and Modern Literature at the University of San Paolo in Brazil
 * Ali Al-Muqri, a Yemeni writer twice longlisted for IPAF in 2009 and 2011 respectively
 * Ayesha Sultan, an Emirati author, journalist, founding director of Warrak Publishing House and Vice President of the Emirates Writers Union

2022

 * Shukri Mabkhout
 * Ashur Etwebi
 * Iman Humaydan
 * Saadiah Mufarreh
 * Baian Rayhanova

Statistics
As of 2020, the following authors have been nominated at least three times:

Three nominations
 * Antoine Douaihy
 * Inaam Kachachi
 * Khaled Khalifa
 * Renée Hayek
 * Youssef Ziedan

Four nominations
 * Amir Tag Elsir
 * Ibrahim Nasrallah
 * Jabbour Douaihy
 * Rabee Jaber
 * Waciny Laredj

Countries

The countries with the most nominations are:
 * Egypt, 34
 * Lebanon, 30
 * Iraq, 22
 * Syria, 20

Sudan, Eritrea and the UAE have one nomination each.

IPAF Nadwa

 * For details of the annual writers' workshop, see International Prize for Arabic Fiction Nadwa.