7 books shortlisted for 2023 Palestine Book Awards

Middle East Monitor (MEMO) is pleased to announce the books shortlisted for its 2023 Palestine Book Awards. This prestigious event, now in its twelfth year, honours and celebrates books published in English about Palestine and encourages authors and publishers to produce more books on Palestine.

2023 has been another successful year with more than 50 books submitted for consideration; the largest recorded in the Awards’ history.

The shortlisted winners selected by the judges have added to the diversity of submissions and genres featuring the Palestinian narrative.

This year’s Award winners will be announced at a prestigious invitation-only event in London this November.

The 2023 shortlisted authors are:

• Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri – They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom
• Dareen Tatour – I Sing From the Window of Exile
• Ibrahim Muhawi (Translator), Hussein Barghouthi (author) – Among the Almond Trees: A Palestinian Memoir
• Mahmoud Najib (Translator), Ghassan Kanafani (author)  –  On Zionist Literature
• Nadim Bawalsa – Transnational Palestine: Migration and the Right of Return before 1948 
• Ranya Abdelrahman (Translator), Samira Azzam (Author) – Out of Time: The Collected Short Stories of Samira Azzam
• Tahrir Hamdi – Imagining Palestine: Cultures of Exile and National Identity

Our panel of Judges this year are:

• Dr Afaf Jabiri – Senior Lecturer at the University of East London
• Dr Ashjan Ajour – Researcher in Sociology at the University of Leicester
• Feras Abu Helal –  Editor-in-Chief of Arabi21
• Dr Ibrahim Darwish – Journalist with Al-Hiwar TV
• Prof Nur Masalha – Member of the Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS
• Sawad Hussain – An award-winning Arabic-English literary translator

MEMO offers its heartiest congratulations to the finalists, gratitude to all those who have submitted their work for consideration and to the judges who have had the difficult task of deciding the shortlist and winners.

All queries on books and authors should be directed to [email protected]