The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) unveiled its 2026 longlist yesterday, setting the stage for one of the Arab world’s most anticipated literary contests. The list of 16 novels showcases a blend of celebrated authors and compelling new voices, selected from a record 137 submissions.
This year’s selection features returning laureates, including Adelouahab Aissaoui, a past winner of the prize, alongside authors Said Khatibi and Abdelmajid Sebbata, who have previously been shortlisted. Also making a return to the IPAF lists are Ahmad Abdulatif, Omaima Abdullah Al-Khamis, and Amin Zaoui, all of whom have been longlisted in prior years.
The 2026 judging panel, chaired by Tunisian researcher and critic Mohamed Elkadhi, described the collection as a “microcosm of the contemporary Arab literary scene in all its richness and variety.”
“Many of the novels turn inward, exploring the private worlds of distinctive and unforgettable characters experiencing psychological crises and struggling to adapt to lived reality,” Elkadhi commented. “History, too, figures prominently in works that evoke the recent or distant past with striking immediacy, probing its reverberations in the present.”
The longlisted titles are
- The Origin of Species by Ahmad Abdulatif
- The Al Musharaq Family’s Aunt by Omaima Al-Khamis
- Grandma Touma’s Cord by Adelouahab Aissaoui
- The Absence of Mai by Najwa Barakat
- Days of the Murdered Fatimid by Nizar Chakroun
- Five Houses for God and a Room for My Grandmother by Marwan Al-Ghafouri
- The Solitude of the Kangaroo by Abdelsalem Ibrahim
- A Cloud Above My Head by Doaa Ibrahim
- The Seer by Diaa Jubaili
- I Resist the River’s Course by Said Khatibi
- In the Labyrinths of Mr. F N by Abdelmajid Sebbata
- Water of the Bride by Khalil Sweileh
- The Flag: The Blowing of the Wind by Sherifa Al-Toubi
- Life Is Not a Novel by Abdo Wazen
- Siesta Dream by Amin Zaoui
- Hiding in a Hamster Wheel by Essam El Zayaat
Elkadhi’s fellow judges include Palestinian writer Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, Bahraini academic Dheya Alkaabi, South Korean academic Laila Hyewon Baek, and Iraqi writer Shakir Nouri.
The prize, sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, awards $50,000 to the winner and $10,000 to each of the five other shortlisted finalists. A key goal of the IPAF is to amplify Arabic fiction globally; recent winners, including Basim Khandaqji and Zahran Alqasmi, are slated for publication in English.
The field will narrow in February 2026 when the shortlist is announced in Bahrain. The 2026 IPAF winner will be revealed at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, April 9th.
TunisianMonitorOnline (NejiMed)
