Meet the winners of this year’s Sheikh Zayed Book Awards, at a live streamed ceremomy. Here the winners talk about their work in English and Arabic. Speakers include:
• Banipal wins the publishing and technology category in recognition of their decades of work championing Arab writing.
• Palestinian-American author Ibtisam Barakat for her children’s book Al-Fatah Al-Laylakeyyah (The Lilac Girl), the story of a young Palestinian girl who loves to paint but has lost her home due to war. Barakat’s memoir, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood, has been published in English by FSG.
• Richard Van Leeuwen for his work on the impact of The Thousand and One Nights on 20th century literature
• Cultural personality of the year: 94-year-old scholar Dr Salma Khadra Al Jayussi, known for her pioneering work in bringing Arabic writing to a wider audience.