This year’s Blue Metropolis Arab Prize will be awarded during the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, to be held April 18 to 23, at the OPUS Hotel Montreal. This award is sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage and will be presented on Saturday, April 21.
About the Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize
Bestowed annually, since 2007 to an Arab writer working in any genre, in Arabic or another language, the Blue Metropolis Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize has a value of $5,000. The prize is sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage to increase international recognition for Arab writers and literature. It is named after poet Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher, who lived in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and wrote what is known as Nabati poetry, which was composed in the Arabic dialect of the Arab Gulf region.
Presided over by Issa J. Boullata, author, literary translator and editor of Banipal magazine, the 2011 Arab Prize jury was composed of Mr. Zaki Nusseibeh of the Presidential Palace, Abu Dhabi in the Arab Emirates, Nujoom AlGhanem, renowned poet and film director living in the Arab Emirates, and Gregory McCormick, Director of Programming at Blue Met.
Past Winners
Joumana Haddad (2010)
Zakaria Tamer (2009)
Saadi Youssef (2008)
Elias Khoury (2007)
In April 2011, Blue Metropolis Foundation launched the Blue Metropolis Strega Prize in association with the Istituto di Cultura Italiana of Montreal, the Maria & Goffredo Bellonci Foundation and the Strega Prize, one of Italy’s most prestigious literary awards. Sponsored by Italvine, the prize is awarded annually to a renowned author writing in Italian. Antonio Pennacchi was the first recipient (2011 Blue Metropolis Strega Prize).
On July 7, 2011 Edoardo Nesi was selected as the 2012 winner. His novel La storia della mia gente was chosen by a jury of over 400 readers in Italy, and in cities around the world, such as Los Angeles, Tokyo, Vienna, Helsiniki and Montreal.
The Blue Metropolis Strega will be presented at the next Blue Metropolis Literary Festival, to be held from April 18 to 23, 2012 at the OPUS Hotel Montreal.
For the first time ever, an external jury selected the winner of this award which will be announced at a special event on Saturday, April 21. Buy your tickets as of March 20 on www.admission.com or by clicking on the event in our online Programme.
About the Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix
The Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix is awarded annually to a writer of international stature and accomplishment as a celebration of a lifetime of literary achievement. Previous recipients are:
Dany Laferrière, 2010
A.S. Byatt, 2009
Daniel Pennac, 2008
Margaret Atwood, 2007
Michel Tremblay, 2006
Carlos Fuentes, 2005
Paul Auster, 2004
Maryse Condé, 2003
Mavis Gallant, 2002
Norman Mailer, 2001
Marie-Claire Blais, 2000
The prize is unusual both in the literary quality of the authors it honours and in the substance of the contributions it recognizes. The jury wishes, with this award, to recognize a lifetime of extraordinary achievement and to present the winner of the award to the reading public of Montreal at the Festival.
The winner is chosen by a jury consisting of well-known writers and journalists. Blue Met was involved in organizing the jury and in compiling a long list of potential winners (in consultation with our programming consultants and members of our Honorary Programming Committee), but was not a member of the jury in order to make the process as independent as possible. The criteria are as follows: the winner should be a writer of international stature and achievement in the literary arts with great appeal to the Festival public in one or more of the following ways:
• an ability to speak French and English (and/or another language),
• literary work published in translation in French and English (and perhaps other languages),
• a significant Montreal readership in French and English
• a willingness to meet that Montreal public at a Festival event at which the Prize will be awarded
Writers proposed to the jury may be of any nationality, including Canadian, they may be of any age, and they may be known for their achievements as writers in one or more of any of the literary arts (e.g. literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, screenwriting, translation, etc.). The award is not linked to any particular publication or production.
