Created in 2013, the Lagardere-IMA Award for Arabic literature is one of the rare French prizes dedicated to Arabic literary creation. The award of 10,000 EUR promotes the work of a writer, citizen of one of the countries of the Arab league, translated into, or originally written in, French, between September 2022 and September 2023.

Samar Yazbek’s “La demeure du vent” (The wind’s abode,translated by Khaled Osman et Ola Mehanna) published by Stock, as well as Mansoura Ezeldin’s “Les jardins de Basra” (The orchards of Basra, translted into French by Philippe Vigreux) published by Sindbad / Actes Sud, are amongst the twelve finalists.

The other ten finalists are:

“Je me souviens de Falloujah”, Feurat Alani (Iraq),  JC Lattès

“Les Portes du paradis” (translated by Luc Barbulesco), Taleb Alrefai (Kuwaït), Sindbad / Actes Sud

“Les Cinq Soeurs”, Percy Kemp (Lebanon), Seuil

“Noir Liban”, Salma Kojok (Lebanon), Erick Bonnier

“Sur le méridien de Greenwich” (translated by Sophie Pommier et May Rostom), Shady Lewis (Egypte), Sindbad / Actes Sud

“Si j’avais un franc”, Abdelkrim Saifi (Algeria), Anne Carrière