The Arkansas Arabic Translation Award (full title: the University of Arkansas Press Award for Arabic Literature in Translation) is a prize given for a notable English translation of a book-length literary work originally written in the Arabic language

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

. The award is administered by the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas

University of Arkansas

The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...

. Since 2008, the prize-winning book has been published by the Syracuse University Press

Syracuse University Press

Syracuse University Press, founded in 1943, is a university press that is part of Syracuse University. The areas of focus for the Press include Middle East Studies, Native American Studies, Peace and Conflict Resolution, Irish Studies and Jewish Studies, among others. The Press has an international...

 as part of their Middle Eastern literature series. Prior to 2008, the University of Arkansas Press

University of Arkansas Press

The University of Arkansas Press is a university press that is part of the University of Arkansas. It was established in 1980, and the press issues an average of twenty titles per year. The press is a member of the Association of American University Presses....

 published the award-winning entry. The prize money is $5000 for the translator and $5000 for the original author. Both fiction and non-fiction works are eligible for the award. Along with the Banipal Prize, the Arkansas Award is the leading prize in the field of Arabic-to-English literary translation.

Past winners

• 2011 - Tree of Pearls, Queen of Cairo

Written by Jurji Zaydan

Jurji Zaydan

Jurji Zaydan was a prolific Lebanese novelist, journalist, editor and teacher most noted for his creation of the journal al-Hilal, which he used to serialize his 23 historical novels.His primary goal as a writer and intellectual during the Nahda was to imbue the common...

; translated by Samah Selim

Samah Selim

Samah Selim is an Egyptian scholar and translator of Arabic literature. She studied English literature at Barnard College, and obtained her PhD from Columbia University in 1997. At present she is an assistant professor at Rutgers University...

• 2010 - The World Through the Eyes of Angels

Written by Mahmoud Saeed

Mahmoud Saeed

Mahmoud Saeed is an Iraqi-born American award-winning novelist.Born in Mosul, Saeed has written more than twenty novels and short story collections, and hundreds of articles. He started writing short stories at an early age. He wrote an award-winning short story in the Newspaper “Fatal Iraq,...

; translated by Allen Salter, Rafah Abu Ennab, and Zahra Jhishi

• 2009 - The Pistachio Seller

Written by Reem Bassiouney

Reem Bassiouney

Reem Bassiouney is an Egyptian author and sociolinguistics professor, currently residing at Georgetown University. She has written several novels and a number of short stories and won the 2009 Sawiris Foundation Literary Prize for Young Writers for her novel Dr. Hanaa...

; translated by Osman Nusairi

Osman Nusairi

Osman Nusairi is a theatre director and award-winning translator. He has translated two Arabic novels into English - Nawal el-Saadawi's Two Women in One and Reem Bassiouney's The Pistachio Seller . The latter work won the Arkansas Arabic Translation Award in 2009....

• 2008 - Blood Test

Written by Abbas Beydoun

Abbas Beydoun

Abbas Beydoun is a Lebanese poet, novelist and journalist. He was born in the village of Sur near Tyre in southern Lebanon. His father was a teacher. Beydoun studied at the Lebanese University in Beirut and the Sorbonne in Paris...

; translated by Max Weiss

Max Weiss (scholar)

Max Weiss is an American scholar and translator, specialising in the culture and history of the Middle East. He studied biology and history at University of California, Berkeley before moving on to Stanford University, where he completed his PhD in modern Middle Eastern history in 2007...

Previous winners published by the University of Arkansas Press:

• Consult Them in the Matter: a 19th Century Islamic Argument for Constitutional Government

Written by Ahmad ibn Abi Diyaf

Ahmad ibn Abi Diyaf

Ahmad ibn Abi Diyaf , known colloquially as Bin Diyaf, was the author of a chronicle of Tunisian history; he was also a long-time and trusted official in the Beylical government of Tunisia...

; translated by Leon Carl Brown

• Scattered Crumbs

Written by Muhsin al-Ramli

Muhsin al-Ramli

Muhsin Al-Ramli is an expatriate Iraqi writer living in Madrid, Spain since 1995. Doctorate in Philosophy and Letters, Spanish Philology. Universidad Autónoma of Madrid 2003, thesis topic: The Imprint of Islamic Culture in Don Quixote. Translator of several Spanish classics to Arabic. Where he...

; translated by Yasmeen Hanoosh

Yasmeen Hanoosh

Yasmeen Hanoosh is an Iraqi academic and translator. She was born in Basra in 1978. She moved to the United States in 1995, subsequently obtaining a BA, MA and PhD from the University of Michigan. The title of her doctoral thesis, submitted in 2008, was "The Politics of Minority Chaldeans between...

• Autumn Equinox

Written by Jabbour Douaihy

Jabbour Douaihy

Jabbour Douaihy is a Lebanese writer. He was born in Zghorta in 1949, a member of the city's prominent El Douaihy family. He obtained a PhD in comparative literature from the New Sorbonne University and is currently a professor of French literature at the Lebanese University in Beirut...

; translated by Nay Hannawi

Nay Hannawi

Nay Hannawi is a Lebanese translator. She obtained a bachelor's degree at the American University in Beirut and an MFA in translation at the University of Arkansas...

• Little Songs in the Shade of Tamaara

Written by Mohammad Afifi; translated by Lisa J. White

Lisa J. White

Lisa J. White is a teacher and translator of Arabic. She was born in Philadelphia and obtained her BA from Penn State University and her MA from Harvard University. She currently teaches Arabic at the American University in Cairo. She won the Arkansas Arabic Translation Award for her translation of...

• The Square Moon: Supernatural Tales

Written by Ghada Samman; translated by Issa J. Boullata

Issa J. Boullata

Issa J. Boullata is a Palestinian scholar, writer, and translator of Arabic literature. He was born in Jerusalem on 25 February 1929 during the British Mandate of Palestine. He obtained a First Class BA in Arabic and Islamic studies in 1964 followed by a PhD in Arabic literature in 1969, both...

• Dongala

Written by Idris Ali

Idris Ali

Idris Ali was an Egyptian author of Nubian origin. He was born in Aswan in Upper Egypt and studied at Al-Azhar University. He published his first story in 1969, and eventually wrote six novels and three short story collections...

; translated by Peter Theroux

Peter Theroux

Peter Theroux is an American writer and translator. He studied English literature at Harvard University, and spent a year at the American University in Cairo...

• Quartet of Joy

Written by Muhammad Afifi Matar

Muhammad Afifi Matar

Muhammad Afifi Matar was an Egyptian poet. He was born in the village of Ramalat al-Anjab in the Menoufia region of the Nile Delta...

; translated by Ferial Ghazoul and John Verlenden

John Verlenden

John Verlenden is an American academic, writer and award-winning translator of Arabic literature. He obtained a BA in English literature from Rhodes College in 1986 followed by an MFA in Creative Writing from Louisiana State University in 1988...

• Improvisations on a Missing String

Written by Nazik Saba Yared

Nazik Saba Yared

Nazik Saba Yared is a Lebanese novelist, and academic.She graduated from American University of Beirut with a PhD.She taught at Lebanese American University, from 1978 to 1998.-Works:*حماد عجرد Dār al-Fikr al-Lubnān, 1983...

; translated by Stuart A. Hancox

• Questions and Their Retinue

Written by Hatif Janabi

Hatif Janabi

Hatif Janabi is an Iraqi poet, translator and author. Born near Babylon in 1952, he studied Arabic language and literature at Baghdad University. He moved to Warsaw, Poland in 1976 for higher studies, eventually obtaining a masters degree in Polish language and literature and a PhD in drama, both...

; translated by Khaled Mattawa

Khaled Mattawa

Khaled Mattawa is a Libyan poet, and a renowned Arab-American writer, he is also a leading literary translator, focusing on translating Arabic poetry into English...

• The First Well: A Bethlehem Boyhood

Written by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra

Jabra Ibrahim Jabra

Jabra Ibrahim Jabra was a Palestinian author of Syriac-Orthodox origin born in Bethlehem at the time of the British Mandate...

; translated by Issa J. Boullata

Issa J. Boullata

Issa J. Boullata is a Palestinian scholar, writer, and translator of Arabic literature. He was born in Jerusalem on 25 February 1929 during the British Mandate of Palestine. He obtained a First Class BA in Arabic and Islamic studies in 1964 followed by a PhD in Arabic literature in 1969, both...

• Kingdom of Strangers

Written by Elias Khoury; translated by Paula Haydar

Paula Haydar

Paula Haydar is an American academic and translator. She obtained a bachelor's degree in physics in 1987 and an M.Ed in 1991 from the University of Massachusetts. She then obtained an MFA in literary translation from the University of Arkansas...

• Beirut ’75

Written by Ghada Samman; translated by Nancy N. Roberts

Nancy N. Roberts

Nancy N. Roberts is an award-winning translator of Arabic literature. Among her literary translations to date are:* Beirut ’75 by Ghada Samman* Beirut Nightmares by Ghada Samman* The Night of the First Billion by Ghada Samman...

• Points of the Compass

Written by Sahar Tawfiq

Sahar Tawfiq

Sahar Tawfiq is an Egyptian novelist, short story writer and translator. Born and raised in Cairo, she studied Arabic language and literature at Al-Azhar University. She has worked as a teacher and educationist in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia....

; translated by Marilyn Booth

Marilyn Booth

-Biography:Booth graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1978, and was the first female winner of the Wendell Scholarship. She obtained a D.Phil. in Arabic literature and Middle Eastern history from St Antony's College, Oxford in 1985. She received a Marshall Fellowship for her...