Arab American Authors Honored for Literary Contributions

posted on: Jul 13, 2013

Engaging storytelling by local and national authors abound among the titles selected to receive the 2013 Arab American Book Award, presented by the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.

This national literary competition — the only one of its kind in the United States — is designed to draw attention to books and authors dealing with Arab American issues. The program has attracted increasing numbers of submissions from authors and publishers across the nation in its seven-year history.

Four winners emerged from the multitude of eligible books published in 2012 that were submitted for consideration; five honorable mentions were also selected. The winning titles were chosen by genre-specific review committees comprised of selected readers from across the country, including respected authors, university professors, artists, librarians and poets.

Winners include:

Fiction

Lebanese Blonde by Joseph Geha (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2012).

Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid (New York, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012).

Poetry

Atrium: Poems by Hala Alyan (New York, Three Rooms Press, 2012).

Children/Young Adult

Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books by Susan L. Roth and Karen Leggett Abouraya (New York, Dial, 2012).

Honorable Mention – Fiction

Flying Carpets by Hedy Habra (March Street Press, 2012; Reprinted: Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2013).

Honorable Mention – Non-Fiction

The Girl Who Fell to Earth by Sophia Al-Maria (New York, HarperCollins, 2012).

Even My Voice is Silence by Soha Al-Jurf (CreateSpace, 2012).

Honorable Mention – Poetry

Sea & Fog by Etel Adnan (Callicoon, NY: Nightboat Books, 2012).

Honorable Mention – Children/Young Adult

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (New York, HarperCollins, 2012).

This year, the Arab American Book Award ceremony will be held on Nov. 2 at the Arab American National Museum, 13624 Michigan Ave. in Dearborn. For more information, or to read more about the winning authors and books, click <a href=”http://www.arabamericanmuseum.org/2013.book.award.winners.”>here</a>.