By Erin L. Cox, Publisher | @erinlcox
Haruki Murakami: ‘An Immense Honor to Me’
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, among one of the Arab world’s most prestigious prizes. This year’s honors, awarded in April, were conferred on such notable names as the intensely popular Lebanese author Hoda Barakat, internationally renowned Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, and British historian Andrew Peacock.“Receiving the Sheikh Zayed Book Award from the United Arab Emirates comes as both a great surprise and an immense honor to me,” said Murakami, who was awarded the Cultural Personality of the Year accolade for 2025.
“Arabic is a language with a long and rich storytelling tradition,” he said, “and it is a great honor for me that my books have been translated and are being read in Arab countries. I believe that stories are a universal language. It is my sincere hope that by sharing good stories, people can connect with each other and that this can become a force, even if only a small one, that moves the world toward peace.”
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, center, with winners at the 2007 Award Ceremony, photo credit SZBA
Since the Sheikh Zayed program’s founding in 2006, there have been 136 awards conferred. New award categories have been added to highlight the breadth of stories, research, cultural contributions, and ideas shared in the Arabic world. A translation grant was created in 2018 to help support the publication of Arabic literature in new languages and far-flung markets around the world. And hundreds of international events have been staged to recognize Arabic culture.
‘A Rich and Diverse Legacy Dating Back Centuries’
In its 20 years, the Sheikh Zayed program has gained resonance in many parts of the world. This year’s awards received more than 4,000 submissions from 75 countries, with winners from Iraq, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
“The Sheikh Zayed Book Award has truly established itself as a mainstay in the international cultural and literary calendar, diffusing Arabic language and literature on a broader scale than ever before,” said Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, chair of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center and secretary general of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in an interview with Publishing Perspectives earlier this summer. “Over the past two decades since its inception, the award has become one of the most dynamic forces driving global recognition of Arabic literature, thought, and scholarship.”
The Sheikh Zayed Book Award at the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center is an independent cultural initiative administered by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Abu Dhabi with a stated goal of expanding Arabic literature and culture throughout the world. That mission is making headway.
In an interview in Publishers Weekly earlier this year, Barakat said, “The organizers of this prize, at all levels, are doing a very serious job of supporting the Arabic language in total freedom and independence, and even with a view to an international dimension, since they are helping publishing houses to translate Arabic writers into all the languages of the world, efficiently and without directives or ideology.”
By celebrating the work of these award-winning writers, by supporting publishers around the world who hope to translate this work and bring them to new audiences, and through key events that illustrate the beauty of this culture, this history, this literature and science, the award’s organizers hope to build a bridge between the Arab world and many other cultures.
“Arabic literature boasts a rich and diverse legacy dating back centuries—millennia, even,” Bin Tamim
Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, secretary general of the UAE’s Sheikh Zayed Book Award.
told Publishing Perspectives. “But it faces a host of persistent challenges,” he said, “that continue to hinder its global reach, especially in translation. Chief among these is the lack of institutional and market-driven mechanisms to support the sustained translation, distribution, and promotion of Arabic works. Unlike literature in certain other languages, for instance, Arabic titles often face insufficient visibility in major international catalogues and festivals, and limited investment from global publishers.”
At the Frankfurter Buchmesse last month, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award hosted two events. New Perspectives on Arabic Literature which featured Beatrice Gründler, Hakan Özkan, and Maurice Pomerantz, a trio of professors discussing contemporary literary theories developed to shed new light on 1,500 years of Arabic literary history that move beyond conventional interpretations. That session was moderated by translator and writer Stephan Weidner.
And, a conversation between this year’s Literature Award laureate Hoda Barakat with FAZ editor Lena Bopp about Barakat’s award-winning novel, Hind, or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, which you can watch below.
Click here for more information about the award or here to download the Rights Guide for books eligible for the translation grant.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the Sheikh Zayed Book Award is here, more on the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center is here, more on Arabic literature is here, and more on translation is here. More from us on publishing and book awards in the international industry is here.
Publishing Perspectives is the world media partner of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.