Arabic - Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize - The Society of Authors

Arabic – Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize

The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize is an annual award, established by Banipal Magazine and the Banipal Trust for Arab Literature, for published translations from Arabic of full-length works of imaginative and creative writing of literary merit and general interest. The winner is awarded £3,000.

The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation (into English) was established by Banipal Magazine and the Banipal Trust for Arab Literature. The prize is sponsored by the Saif Ghobash family in memory of their husband and father, the late Saif Ghobash (21 October 1932 – 25 October 1977) who was a passionate bibliophile, and is administered by the Society of Authors.

The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize is currently closed for submissions.
The prize will re-open for entries in 2026.

The 2024 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize winner

Katharine Halls for a translation of Rotten Evidence by Ahmed Naji (McSweeney’s)

Photography © Natalie Thorpe

‘Scathing, humorous, compelling, Rotten Evidence, excels for its indictment of a broken political system but also for its visceral account of the author’s interior life in prison. Katharine Halls’s translation does full justice to Ahmed Naji’s depiction of a world that few outsiders will know or understand.’

Michael Caines, 2024 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize judge

The 2024 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize shortlist

Kay Heikkinen for a translation of Before the Queen Falls Asleep by Huzama Habayeb (MacLehose Press)

Sawad Hussain for a translation of Edo’s Souls by Stella Gaitano (Dedalus)

Nada Faris for a translation of Lost in Mecca by Bothayna Al-Essa (DarArab For Publishing and Translation)

Katharine Halls for a translation of Rotten Evidence by Ahmed Naji (McSweeney’s)

Robin Moger for a translation of Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal (And Other Stories)

Nadiya Abdullatif and Anam Zafar for a translation of Yoghurt and Jam (or How my Mother Became Lebanese) by Lena Merhej (Balestier Press)

‘Strikingly, five of the six short-listed entries are authored by women. Furthermore, three of them deal explicitly with motherhood and the mother-child relationship, while a fourth charts the psychological collapse of a father and mother whose child is kidnapped. That said, all the works reflect universal concerns through specific local contexts and visions.’
The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize judges

If you are interested in any of the books here please visit: Saif Ghobash Banipal Website and Bookshop.org.

With thanks, the judges for the 2025 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize are:

Professor Tina Phillips:

Professor Tina Phillips is a scholar and translator of modern Arabic literature and was recently appointed to The His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Chair of Modern Arabic Studies at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. She has studied at the University of Oxford and SOAS and from 2011-2025 worked at the University of Exeter, serving as Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies from 2022-25. Her research focuses on modern Arabic literature, religion and environment and her publications include Religion in the Egyptian Novel: Themes and Approaches (2019) and novels by Naguib Mahfouz, Mohammed Berrada and Samuel Shimon. Professor Tina Phillips is chair of judges.

Nashwa Nasreldin:

Nashwa Nasreldin is a writer, editor, and literary translator of Arabic novels, short stories, poems, screenplays and non-fiction. Her translations have been published in The Common, Words Without Borders and ArabLit Quarterly, among other publications. Her translation of Abdelrashid Mahmoudi’s After Coffee was a ‘Fiction Finalist’ at the 2019 International Book Awards. Her other translations include Taleb Alrefai’s Shadow of the Sun, and with Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria by Samar Yazbek. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, USA, and her poems and essays have appeared in literary journals in the UK and elsewhere. She is a contributing editor at ArabLit.org and ArabLit Quarterly and is the commissioning editor at the Poetry Translation Centre.

Dr Susan F. Frenk:

Dr Susan F Frenk is Principal of St Aidan’s College, Durham University, Chair of Durham City of Sanctuary, and co-Director of the Societal Innovation and Enterprise Forum (SIEF). She also sits on the steering committees of the Durham University Centre for Jewish Studies and Durham Pride. She is a sponsor of Durham University’s Palestine Educational Trust. Following degrees from Cambridge University, she lectured in Latin American Studies at Durham University, but her main research interests are now Migration Studies and creating community inclusion. For ten years, St Aidan’s College hosted the annual Banipal Visiting Writer Fellowship for a published author writing in Arabic, initiated by the College’s Writing Fellow, Fadia Faqir, in collaboration with Banipal Magazine of Modern Arab Literature and the British Council.

Boyd Tonkin Hon. FRSL:

Boyd Tonkin Hon. FRSL is a journalist, editor and writer who was awarded the Royal Society of Literature’s Benson Medal in 2020 for outstanding service to literature over the course of a career. He currently writes on books and arts for international media including The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Guardian, The Spectator and Times Literary Supplement, and was formerly Literary Editor and Senior Writer at The Independent. He revived and judged the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, 2001-2015, chaired the Man Booker International Prize 2016, then became the prize’s Special Adviser. He has served as a member of the Council of the Royal Society of Literature, and as a Trustee of the Orwell Foundation. His reader’s guide to global fiction, The 100 Best Novels in Translation, is published by Galileo.

2023 (presented 2024)

Winner: Luke Leafgren for a translation of Mister N by Najwa Barakat (And Other Stories)
Shortlisted: Bruce Fudge for a translation of The Turban and the Hat by Sonallah Ibrahim (Seagull Books)
Paula Haydar for a translation of The King of India by Jabbour Douaihy (Interlink Books)
Paula Haydar and Nadine Sinno for a translation of Firefly by Jabbour Douaihy (Seagull Books)
Sawad Hussain for a translation of What Have You Left Behind? by Bushra al–Maqtari (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
M. Lynx Qualey for a translation of Thunderbird: Book One and Thunderbird: Book Two by Sonia Nimr (University of Texas Press)

2022 (presented 2023)

Winner: Humphrey Davies for a translation of The Men Who Swallowed the Sun (Hoopoe: An Imprint of AUC Press)
Winner: Robin Moger for a translation of Slipping (Two Lines Press)
Runner-up: Alexander E. Elinson for a translation of Hot Maroc (Syracuse University Press)

2021 (presented 2022)

Winner: Sarah Enany for a translation of The Girl with Braided Hair by Rasha Adly (Hoopoe an Imprint of AUC Press)
Shortlisted: Sawad Hussain for a translation of A Bed for the Kings Daughter by Shahla Ujayli (Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UT Austin/UT Press)
- Jonathan Wright for a translation of God 99 by Hassan Blasim (Comma Press)
- Elisabeth Jaquette for a translation of The Frightened Ones by Dima Wannous (Harvill Secker)
- Marilyn Booth for a translation of Voices of the Lost by Hoda Barakat (Oneworld)

2020 (presented 2021)

Winner: Kay Heikkenen for a translation of Velvet by Huzama Habayeb (Hoopoe an Imprint of AUC Press)
Shortlisted: Jonathan Wright for a translation of The Egyptian Assassin by Ezzedine C. Fishere (Hoopoe an Imprint of AUC Press)
- Sophia Vasalou for a translation of The Old Woman and the River by Ismail Fahd Ismail (Interlink Books)
- Alexander E. Elinson for a translation of A Shimmering Red Fish Swims with Me by Youssef Fadel (Hoopoe an Imprint of AUC Press)
- Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp and Sue Copeland for a translation of Trees for the Absentees by Ahlam Bsharat (Neem Tree Press)

2019 (presented 2020)

Winner: Leri Price for a translation of Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa (Faber & Faber)
Shortlisted: Marilyn Booth for a translation of Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (Sandstone Press)
- Humphrey Davies for a translation of My Name is Adam: Children of the Ghetto Volume 1 by Elias Khoury (MacLehose)
- Jonathan Wright for a translation of Jokes for the Gunman by Mazen Maarouf (Granta Books)

2018 (presented in 2019)

Winner: Luke Leafgren for a translation of The President’s Gardens by Muhsin Al-Ramli (MacLehose Press/Quercus)
Shortlisted: Benjamin Koerber for a translation of Using Life by Ahmed Naji and illustrated by Ayman Al Zarkany (CMES Publications UT Austin)
- Khaled Mattawa for a translation of Concerto al-Quds by Adonis (Yale University Press)
- Jonathan Wright for a translation of Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi (Oneworld)

2017 (presented 2018)

Winner: Robin Moger for a translation of The Book of Safety by Yasser Abdel Hafez (Hoopoe Fiction, AUC)
Shortlisted: Katharine Halls and Adam Talib for a translation of The Dove’s Necklace by Raja Alem (Duckworth)
- Leri Price for a translation of No Knives in the Kitchens of This City by Khaled Khalifa (Hoopoe Fiction, AUC)
- Anna Ziajka Stanton for a translation of Limbo Beirut by Hilal Chouman (Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas Press)

2016 (presented 2017)

Winner: Jonathan Wright for a translation of The Bamboo Stalk by Saud Alsanousi (Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing)

2015 (presented 2016)

Winner: Paul Starkey for a translation of The Book of the Sultan’s Seal by Youssef Rakha (Interlink)
Commended: Jonathan Wright for a translation of Land of No Rain by Amjad Nasser (Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation)

2014

Winner: Sinan Antoon for a translation of his own novel The Corpse Washer (Yale University Press)
Commended: Paula Haydar for a translation of June Rain by Jabbour Douaihy (Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation)

2013

Joint winners: Willian Maynard Hutchins for a translation of A Land Without Jasmine by Wajdi al-Ahdal (Garnet) and Jonathan Wright for a translation of Azazeel by Zoussef Ziedan (Atlantic).

2012

Winner: Roger Allen for a translation of A Muslim Suicide by Bensalem Himmich (Syracuse University Press)
Commended: Humphrey Davis for a translation of I Was Born There, I Was Born Here by Mourid Barghouti (Bloomsbury)

2011

Winner: Khaled Mattawa for a translation of Selected Poems by Adonis (Yale University Press)
Runner-up: Barbara Romaine for a translation of Spectres by Radwa Ashour (Arabia Books)
Commended: Maia Tabet for a translation of White Masks by Elias Khoury (Archipelago Books)

2010

Winner: Humphrey Davies for a translation of Yalo by Elias Khoury (MacLehose Press)
Joint runners-up: Kareem James Abu-Zeid for a translation of Cities Without Palms by Tarek Eltayeb (Arabia Books) and Humphrey Davies for a transaltion of Sunset Oasis by Bahaa Taher (Sceptre).

2009

Winner: Samah Selim for a translation of The Collar and the Bracelet by Yahya Taher Abdulla (American University in Cairo Press)
Joint runners-up: Elliott Colla for a transaltion of Gold Dust by Ibrahim al-Koni (Arabia Books/Haus Publishing) and Michelle Hartman for a translation of Wild Mulberries by Iman Humaydan Younes (Interlink Books).

2008

Winner: Fady Joudah for a translation of The Butterfly’s Burden by Mahmoud Darwish (Bloodaxe Books)
Runner up: Ghassan Nasr for a translation of The Journals of Sarab Affan by Jabra Ibran Jabra (Syracuse University Press)
Commended: for a translation of The Man from Bashmour by Salwa Bakr (American University in Cairo Press)

2007

Winner: Farouk Abdel Wahab for a transaltion ofThe Lodging House by Khairy Shalaby (American University in Cairo Press)
Runner up: Marilyn Booth for a translation of Thieves in Ritirement by Hamdi Abu Golayyel (Syracuse University Press)
Commended: Peter Theroux for a transaltion offor Saraya, the Ogre’s Daughter by Emile Habiby (Ibis)

2006

Winner: Humphrey Davies for a transaltion ofGate of the Sun by Elias Khoury (Harvill Secker)
Runner up: Hala Halim for a translation of Clamor of the Lake by Mohamed El-Bisatie (American University in Cairo Press)

Banipal Trust for Arab Literature

The Banipal Trust for Arab Literature was founded in September 2004 by the publisher of Banipal magazine to support and celebrate the publication of Arab authors in English translation and the production of live literature events in the UK with Arab authors.

The Trust supports the deepening and enriching of cultural dialogue between the Arab world and the West (particularly Europe and North America) in order to bring the literature of today’s Arab authors to the multicultural readership of the UK and English speakers worldwide. The Trust sees this intercultural dialogue and exchange as opening a window for a Western audience on the realities of contemporary Arab culture in all its diversity and vibrancy.

Banipal Magazine

Banipal magazine showcases contemporary Arab authors in English translation, from wherever they are writing and publishing. An independent magazine, founded in 1998 by Margaret Obank and Iraqi author Samuel Shimon, Banipal‘s three issues a year present both established and emerging Arab writers through poems, short stories or excerpts of novels, plus the occasional features of literary influences, travelling tale.

Banipal’s three cornerstones, which have been with us since then, are that Arab literature is an essential part of world culture and human civilisation; that dialogue between different cultures needs to be continually deepened; and that the joy and enlightenment to be gained from reading beautiful poetry and imaginative writing is an integral part of human existence.

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