UAE- Etisalat Award for Arabic Children's Literature receives 97 entries from 12 countries
Date
9/21/2015 5:19:57 AM
(MENAFN- Emirates News Agency (WAM))
SHARJAH 21st September 2015 (WAM) -- The Etisalat Award for Arabic Children's Literature organised by the UAE Board on books for Young People UAEBBY and sponsored by Etisalat has announced that it has received 97 entries in both children's book and young adult categories after the call for submissions for the 7th edition closed.
The shortlist of winning entries will be announced during the Frankfurt International Book Fair in October.
The Etisalat Award for Arabic Children's Literature is the Arab world's most prestigious children's literature award and has received entries from leading publishing houses in the UAE Saudi Arabia Kuwait Qatar Egypt Iraq Lebanon Syria Jordan and Palestine. Publishing houses from the UK and Canada are also participating for the first time highlighting the international acclaim the competition has garnered.
The award administration received 62 books in the children's book category and 35 books in young adult category with most entries coming from Lebanon with 32 submissions followed by the UAE with 18 and Egypt with 15 books in both categories. Other countries participated with books ranging between one and eight entries in both categories.
The AED1 million award is distributed over several categories with the largest award of AED300000 for the Children's Book of the Year distributed equally between the author illustrator and publisher.
The second highest award of AED200000 goes to the Young Adult Book of the Year to be distributed equally between the author and publisher and there are three awards of AED100000 each for the Best Text Best Illustration and Best Production categories. The remaining AED200000 is set aside for workshops on writing illustration and production aimed at inspiring the next generation of young Arab talent in the children's book industry.
Marwa Obaid Al Aqroubi President of UAEBBY Executive Board said "We are pleased with the level of interest demonstrated by children's book publishers who compete to win the Etisalat Literature Prize as well as with the broadening geographical range of participating countries. This edition saw a remarkable growth in submitted books by Emirati publishing houses with six publishers submitting 18 titles in the award's five categories. We also succeeded in attracting two publishing houses from the UK and Canada indicating that we are on the right path towards generating more awareness about the importance of developing the Arabic children's book industry and encouraging professionals in this sector to enrich the children's book library with new and creative works."
Al Aqroubi also said that the 97 entries in both children and young adult categories were all of a high standard in terms of the text illustration and direction indicating that competition is strong and picking winners would be difficult.