Abdelmajid Sebbata (Morocco) working on Fi Riwaya Oukhra (working title) — a novel comprised of three stories taking place in different times and spaces: the author in 2018 who forgets his laptop containing his novel’s manuscript in a rental car, an American author traveling to Morocco in 2002 where her father was stationed during WWII, and a Moroccan teenager studying in Moscow who finds himself inside the Moscow theater during the hostage-taking events in 2002.
Mira Sidawi (Lebanon/Palestine) working on Qol Lil Naoum An Yanam, a novel on daily life in the Borj El Barjneh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon revolving around a central character, Nasr, a nightingale introduced into the camp.
The two recipients of the first edition were selected from over 190 applications from across the Arab world. The selection committee comprised Golan Haji (poet, Damascus/Paris), Lina Mounzer (writer, Beirut), and Nisrine Al Zahre (linguist, Damascus/Paris).