Since 2011, the Sharjah Book Authority has been offering grant support for publishers looking to acquire rights while at the Sharjah International Book Fair. The grant program intends to facilitate cross-cultural exchange and offers various levels of funding support to Arab and foreign publishers for the translation of literary works into various languages. The support is generous, with as much as $4,000 available for general titles and $1,500 for children’s books. Overall, the fund supports up to $300,000 of grants each year. Over 500 books have been supported by grants. In 2021 – 2022, 90 different publishers and professional organizations were awarded grants, including a variety of well-known publishers from the Middle East, such as Lebanon’s Arab Scientific Publishers and the American University of Cairo Press, and others from further afield, including Textofilia Ediciones and HarperCollins, both from Mexico, and Book Art Nepal.

Turjuman Award

In addition, starting in 2016, the SBA began offering the Sharjah Translation Award, also known as the Turjuman Award. The award “aims to promote Arabic titles globally by encouraging international translators and publishers to pick up titles written by renowned Arab authors and translate them for audiences worldwide, thereby contributing to global appreciation of Arabic literature and enhancing cross-cultural communication,” according to the organizers.

The Turjuman Award is open to international publishing houses, which have published translations of an original publication in Arabic. Publishers may submit more than one work for the jury’s consideration each year.

It offers a cash prize of AED 1.3 million ($350,000), with 70% of the prize money to the foreign publishing house that holds the translation rights and 30% to the Arab publishing house that published the first edition of the book.

Past winners of the Turjuman Award include Spanish publishing house Editorial Verbum for translating and publishing One Thousand and One Nights; France’s Actes Sud for a translation of The Nature of Despotism by Syrian author Abdul Rahman Al Kawakibi; and Italian publisher Edizioni E/O for its Italian translation of the novel A Small Death (Mawt Sagheer) by Saudi author Mohammed Hasan Alwan; and Brazilian publishing house Tabla for its Portuguese-language edition of Eleven Planets by the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

Honoring Emirati and International Talent

To motivate local Emirati writers, the fair has announced four new awards for this year, each of which offers AED 50,000 ($13,000) to the winner. The first of these, Best Emirati Book for First-Time Authors, honors an outstanding debut novel that “demonstrates their literary prowess and creative ingenuity.” The other three awards are: Best Emirati Novel Award; Best Emirati Creative Literature Book; and Best Emirati Academic Book. These are designed to “encourage local literary talents, authors, researchers and publishers to continue enriching the U.A.E. library with exceptional and valuable work.”

The Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) also provides awards in a variety of other categories, including:

Sharjah Award for the Best Arabic Novel: The AED 150,000 ($40,000) award recognizes original work that present fresh themes, styles, and creative perspectives in their portrayal of the sociocultural realities of the Arab world.

Sharjah Award for the Best International Book: Divided into two subcategories of fiction and non-fiction, each valued at AED 50,000 ($13,000), this award honors the most outstanding literary works of the year in English.

Sharjah Publisher Recognition Award: The AED 75,000 ($19,500) award is split equally amongst the winners of the following sub-categories: Best Local Publisher, Best Arab Publisher and Best International Publisher, recognizing each one’s contributions to advancing the global industry.

A final prize, the Cultural Personality of the Year Award, is given to a person or organization active in the field of culture. The winner of the Cultural Personality of the Year Award is selected in accordance with the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council of the U.A.E., Ruler of Sharjah, and announced annually prior to SIBF.