Sheikh Zayed Book Award announces long list in “Literary & Art Criticism”

The Arab World’s most prestigious and well-funded Award named eight finalists in its “Literary and Art Criticism” category as part of its Longlist announcements for its 7th session for the year 2012/2013. Earlier this year, the category had been redefined to cover a wider variety of works of criticism in the fields of art, cinema, music, theatrical plays, studies of image, architecture, sculpture, historical ruins, folkloric arts, and history of literature and theories. The Award’s Reading Panels concluded their work, filtering a total of 1262 works nominated for the Award’s diverse categories through September and October 2012. The prospects in Literary and Art Criticism were filtered out of a total of 139 works received – that is close to 11% of total nominations. This year, Four works from Morocco and three from Iraq took over the list in addition to one work from Tunisia: Book title Author Country Publisher Al Shi’er Wal Ma’na (Poetry and Connotation) Ibrahim Al Hajari Morocco Dar Al Naya and Dar Muhakat, Damascus 2012 Al Soufiyya wal Faragh (Sufism and Void) Khaled BilQasem Morocco Arab Cultural Center, Casablanca and Beirut 2012 Al talakki 'inda Hazem al-Qartajni (Reception as per hazem al-qartajni) Mohammad BinilHassan Morocco Dar Alam Al Kutub Al Hadeeth, Amman 2012 Nazariyyat Al Alamat ‘ind Jama’at Vienna (The Theory of signs of Vienna Circle) Mohammad Jabiri Morocco Dar Al Kitab Al Jadeed, Beirut 2010 Al Takhaywol Al Tarikhi (Historic Visualization) Abdullah Ibrahim Iraq Arab Association for Studies and Publishing, Beirut 2011 Al naqd bayn al hadatha wa ma ba’d al hadatha (Criticism in modernism and post modernism) Ibrahim Al Haydari Iraq Dar Al Saqi, Beirut 2012 Haykalyyat al takween fi munamnamat maqamat al hariri (Structure in the illustrations of the Maqam of al-Hariri.) Wasma’a Al Agha Iraq Dar Al Adeeb, Amman 2012 Al Mutawwala fil shi'r al-arabi al hadeeth (The 'long poem' in Arabic Modern Poetry) Ahmad Al Jawwa Tunisia Al Tasfeer Al Fanni Press and Safaqes University, Tunisia 2011 Meanwhile, the Award’s judging panels work is in progress since November 11, to evaluate the long listed books. The assessment results will be collectively evaluated by the Scientific Committee of the Award to produce a short list which will again be evaluated to choose the winner of each category.  The winners are scheduled for announcement in February 2013, and the Award’s Presentation Ceremony, celebrating the winning achievements, will be held at Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions on 25th March next year. The award comprises of nine categories where the total monetary prize stands at seven million UAE dirhams. Each prize consists of a gold medal bearing the SZBA logo, a certificate of merit and 750,000.00 Dirhams. The Cultural Personality of the Year winner receives a prize of one million dirhams.