The Sheikh Zayed Book Award announced the longlist of book titles for two of its categories, Children’s Literature and Translated Works, on Monday, 10 December. The announcement comes after the Award’s reading panels concluded their work, going through a total of 1,262 works nominated for the award’s diverse categories through September and October 2012.

The children's literature longlist included four Egyptian writers - Mikkawi Saeed, Walid Taher, Sahar Abdullah and Najla Jalal Al-Sayyed Allam.

Fourteen books have been long-listed under both categories. The books in the children's literature list, which include books for adolescents, were filtered out of more than 100 contenders in the category. The prospects come from Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and the UAE.

The children's literature longlist is as follows:

In the Translated Works category, six books made it onto the longlist out of a total of 114 nominations received during this session. The selected works fall in four subcategories:

1)Works translated from Arabic to English, including “Mahmoud Darwish Absent Presence” by Dr. Mohammad Shaheen from Jordan, published by Hesperus Press, 2010.

2) Works translated from English to Arabic, including Mukhtasar Tareekh al-Adala (A Summarized History of Justice) published in London 2010, translated by Mustafa Nasser from Iraq, from the original work by David Johnston; and “When Languages Die” translated from the original work by David Harrison by Mohammad Mazen Fathi from Egypt, published by KSU Riyadh 2011.

3)Works translated from German to Arabic, including Jamalyyat al-Ada' (Aesthetics of Performance) by the German Author Erika Fischer, translated by Marwa Mahdi, Egypt in 2012; and Al-Kaynoona Wal Zaman (Being and Time) by the German Philosopher Martin Heidegger, translated by Dr. Fathi Al-Maskini from Tunisia (Dar al-Kitab al-Jedeed, Beirut 2012).

4)Works translated from French to Arabic, including Madkhal ila 'alam al Tarjama  (An Introduction to the Science of Translation) translated by Mohammad Tijjo from Syria from the original work by Matthew Geder. Published by KSU, Riyadh 2012.

The Award’s judging panels have been working since 11 November to evaluate the long-listed books. The results will be collectively evaluated by the Scientific Committee of the Award to produce a shortlist, which will again be evaluated to choose a winner for each category.  The winners will be announced in February 2013, and the Award’s Presentation Ceremony, celebrating the winning achievements, will be held at Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions on 25 April.

Last year, Abdo Wazen from Lebanon won the Children’s Literature title for his novel 'The Boy Who Saw the Colour of Air', while Abu Yarub Al-Marzouqi from Tunisia was named winner of the Translated Works award for his book 'A Prelude to Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy' translated from the work of Edmund Horsel in German.

The award comprises nine categories, with the total monetary amount awarded at seven million UAE dirhams. Each prize consists of a gold medal bearing the SZBA logo, a certificate of merit and 750,000 dirhams. The Cultural Personality of the Year winner receives a prize of one million dirhams.