Moroccan Leïla Bahsaïn’s “eggplant theory” is in the running for the Arab Literature Prize, the only French award for Arab literary creation, the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) announced on Thursday. Prize with the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation.
Created in 2013, the Arab Literature Prize is the only French award recognizing Arab literary creation. Each year, a selection committee examines recent works published by French and Arab publishing houses.
Winner of the Tangier News Prize 2011 and the Mediterranean Prize for the first novel, Leïla Bahsaïn was selected in the official selection of this Prize in 2019 with her first novel “Le Ciel sous nos pas” published by Albin Michel.
The selection of this 9th edition honors the richness of Arab literature, through the novels of writers from various countries of the Arab world, underlines the IMA.
Chaired by Pierre Leroy, Deputy CEO of Lagardère SA and Chairman and CEO of Hachette Livre, the jury is made up of eminent personalities from the arts, culture and specialists from the Arab world, including the Moroccan painter and writer Mahi Binebine.
The name of the winner of the Arab Literature Prize will be announced in the fall.
Since its creation, the Arab Literature Prize has been awarded to the Lebanese Jabbour Douaihy (2013), to the Egyptian Mohamed al-Fakharany (2014), to the Saudi Mohammed Hasan Alwan (2015), to the Iraqi Inaam Kachachi (2016). ), Iraqi Sinan Antoon (2017), Anglo-Egyptian Omar Robert Hamilton (2018) and Egyptian Mohammed Abdelnabi (2019), for his novel The Spider’s Room (Actes Sud / Sindbad) .
The 2020 Prize was awarded to Sudanese Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin for his novel Les Jango (Editions Zulma).
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