Shortlist announced for Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation 2024

The Banipal Trust for Arab Literature has announced the shortlist for the 19th Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.

A prize of £3,000 is awarded to translators of published English versions of full-length Arabic literary works of merit.

The shortlist

This year, the trust considered 19 entries by 14 publishers, comprising 10 novels, two short story collections, three poetry collections, two memoirs, one literary biography and one work of YA fiction.

Of these entries, three novels, a graphic memoir, a prison memoir and a biographical detective story have been shortlisted.

The judges commented that while the shortlist shows diversity in genre and themes, all the works “reflect universal concerns through specific local contexts and visions".

Before the Queen Falls Asleep

Before the Queen Falls Asleep by Palestinian writer Huzama Habayeb, translated by Kay Heikkinen, is a novel that details the lives of an extended Palestinian family living in Kuwait before they were forced to leave following the Iraqi invasion of 1990. Heikkinen previously won the prize in 2020 for translating Habayeb’s novel Velvet.

Edo’s Souls

Written by South Sudanese writer Stella Gaitano and translated by Sawad Hussain, this is the first novel from South Sudan to be translated into English. Set in 1970s Sudan, in rural areas and the cities of Juba and Khartoum, the story follows Lucy, the sole surviving child of her mother Edo, as she sets out to recreate her lost siblings. The novel has been praised for bringing to light an important period of Sudan’s history in an accessible way.

This is Hussain's third time being shortlisted for the prize. She was first recognised in 2021 for her translation of A Bed for the King’s Daughter by the Syrian writer Shahla Ujayli and again in 2023 for her translation of Yemeni writer and activist Bushra al-Maqtari's non-fiction work What Have You Left Behind.

Lost in Mecca

Lost in Mecca, by well-known Kuwaiti novelist Bothayna Al-Essa, translated by Nada Faris, is a dark literary thriller. During the chaos and commotion of the Hajj pilgrimage, Mishari’s hand slips out of his mother’s. From there, readers are taken on a journey through the perspective of Mishari’s parents and their psychological unravelling as they search for their son.

This is Faris's first literary translation, but her work as an author has appeared in several well-known anthologies, such as The Norton Anthology for Hint Fiction, Gulf Coast Journal, Indianapolis Review, The American Journal of Poetry and more.

Rotten Evidence

Penned by Egyptian journalist and literary writer Ahmed Naji and subsequently translated by Katharine Halls, Rotten Evidence is a prison memoir delving into the author's own experience.

In 2016, Naji was arrested and served almost 300 days in prison for “violating public modesty” in his novel The Use of Life. After being released and moving to the US in 2019, Naji now writes about his experience, charting his journey through the courts and prison systems in contrast to his childhood experiences as the son of a leading figure in the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Halls's translation of Naji's novel was also shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir and Autobiography earlier this year. In 2021, her translation of Saudi Arabian novelist Raja Alem’s work, The Dove’s Necklace, with fellow translator Adam Talib, was also shortlisted for the 2017 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize and received the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation that year.

Traces of Enayat

Traces of Enayat by Egyptian poet Iman Mersal, translated by Robin Moger, is a biographical work about the mysterious and tragic writer Enayat al-Zayyat. Known and praised for her only novel Love and Silence, al-Zayyat died by suicide in 1963 at the age of 26. Mersal has spent years depending on research and luck to bring together the story of al-Zayyat’s life, and delves into the history of Egyptian cinema, literature, questionable medical practices and divorce laws.

Mesal's novel was the 2021 Sheikh Zayed Book Award winner in the literature category. Moger, meanwhile, has won the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize twice. In 2022, he translated Slipping by the Egyptian novelist and poet Mohammed Kheir, and in 2017, he translated The Book of Safety by the Egyptian novelist Yasser Abdel Hafez. He is also one of the translators who received the English Pen Award for translating Writing Revolution: The Voices from Tunis to Damascus by Layla Al-Zubaidi.

Yoghurt and Jam (or How My Mother Became Lebanese)

Yoghurt and Jam (or How My Mother Became Lebanese) by the comic artist Lena Merhej, translated by Nadiyah Abdullatif and Anam Zafar, is a graphic memoir about identity and family.

Merhej's graphic memoir explores her family history through the story of her German mother’s experiences and transformation after moving to Beirut. Using recipes, food and everyday objects, Merhej's intimate and light drawings illustrate the story of her family set against the backdrop of Europe’s and Lebanon’s histories of the war.

Abdullatif is an editor and translator who translates works from Arabic, French, Mauritian Creole, and Spanish into English. Her translation work includes literature, comics, and graphic novels. Zafar also translates from Arabic and French to English, and in 2021, she received the Gulf Coast Prize in Translation for her work on four stories from Syrian writer Najat Abed Alsamad’s In the Tenderness of War.

Abdullatif and Zafar’s work on Yoghurt and Jam (or How My Mother Became Lebanese) has already won them a Pen Translates Award.

This year's judging panel

The judging panel for the 2024 prize features Raphael Cohen, a freelance translator in the fields of literature, politics, and development; Michael Caines, editor at the Times Literary Supplement and co-founder of the Brixton Review of Books; Laura Watkinson, an award-winning literary translator; and Nariman Youssef, a literary translator and translation consultant.

Last year, translator Luke Leafgren was named the winner for his translation of Mister N, the novel by Lebanese writer Najwa Barakat.

The winner of the 2024 Prize will be announced on January 8.