The winners at the Sheikh Zayed Book Awards include the Egyptian author Abdel-Rasheed Mahmoudi, who won the literature prize for his novel After Coffee.

The prizes are to be awarded at a grand ceremony on 4 May at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.

Dr Ali bin Tamim expressed his appreciation for the "genuine and sincere efforts of the sorting, reading, arbitration and scientific committees," before announcing the names of the winners of the awards.

Contribution to the Development of Nations Award went to Dr Saeed Abdullah Al-Soyan for his study The Epic of Human Evolution, published by Madarik Publishing – Dubai.

Children’s Literature Award went to Jawdat Fakhr Eldine for his book Thirty Poems for Children, Dar Al-Hadaiq Publishing (2013).

Young Author Award winner is Rami Abu Shihab for his book Permanence and Deception: Post-Colonial Discourse in the Contemporary Arab Criticism, a publication of the Arab Institute for Research and Publication, Beirut (2013).

Translation Award went to Mohammed Al-Tahir Al-Mansouri, from Tunisia, for translating the book Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World, published by Dar Al-Madar Al-Islami Publishing (2013).

Literature Award was won by the Egyptian author Abdel-Rasheed Mahmoudi for his novel After Coffee, published by Al-Dar Al-Arabiya for Books (2013).

Literary and Art Criticism Award was withheld because the studies submitted did not meet the standards for winning the prize according to the scientific committee.

Arabic Culture in Other Languages Award went to the Italian writer Mario Liverani, for his book Imagining Babylon, a publication by Editori La Tersa Publishing, Rome - Bari (2013).

Publishing and Technology Award was won by the Arab Foundation House of Wisdom from Tunisia. The foundation was chosen for the deep thought, responsible academic effort, and the clear lively heritage of all activities of this institution.

Dr Ali bin Tamim, secretary general of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, explained that "1,385 works participated in this year's session, in a 12 percent increase from last year, which confirms the importance of the award and the vital role it plays in the cultural scene in the Arab region. Worth noting in this year's session is the high participation in the Young Author category, which reached a total number of 370 nominations, followed by the category of Arts, with 320 nominations.

"The different stages of the award were accompanied by an extensive cultural program, which witnessed a cultural event in September 2013, in the Russian capital, in collaboration with the UAE embassy in Moscow and the Oriental Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to promote awareness of the prize, and to highlight the cultural character of the UAE, in addition to recognising the role of Russian publishers, academics, intellectuals and translators in building bridges of cooperation and communication, with Arab culture. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award also hosted a press conference and a poetry reading, where prominent Emirati poets recited their poems during the Cremona annual festival in northern Italy, last June."

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award will organise a series of seminars and dialogues with the winners of its 8th session within the cultural program of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, to be held from April 30 to 5 May at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.