This week, a group of six emerging writers joined two award-winning novelists — Hammour Ziada and Mohammed Hasan Alwan — for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF)’s eighth nadwa, held at Qasr Al Sarab, a desert retreat in Abu Dhabi:
Authors and mentors at work. Photo courtesy IPAF.
Alwan and Ziada have both had novels shortlisted for the IPAF, as well as taking other awards: Ziada the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Arabic Literature and Hasan Alwan the Prix de la Littérature Arabe, among others.
They led the group of six emerging Arab authors in an annual week-long workshop.
This year’s six participants were all young writers — between 30 and 38 — who had been identified by IPAF organizers as “emerging talent.” Four of the six were women, and four of the six from GCC nations.
They are, according to the IPAF release:
Eyad Abdulrahman (Saudi Arabia) is a writer and novelist, born…
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