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Moroccan author Mohammed Achaari and Raja Alem, an author from Saudi Arabia, have been jointly awarded the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2011.
It is the first time that two winners have been awarded the US $50,000 prize, which they have split between them. Achaari won for his novel The Arch and the Butterfly, while Raja Alem, the prize’s first female winner, won for her novel The Doves’ Necklace.
The winners were announced by this year’s chair of judges, Iraqi poet and novelist Fadhil Al-Azzawi, at an awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi. Both winners are guaranteed an English translation of their winning novels.
Al-Azzawi said: “They are two wonderful novels with great literary quality and they both deal with important and realistic problems in the Middle East, problems which have been reflected on banners during the recent protests that have shaken the Arab world, demanding change.”
This year’s winners were chosen from a shortlist of six titles, each of which received US $10,000 each.
The prize was established in 2007 to address the limited international availability of high quality Arab fiction.