The winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2018 will be announced at a ceremony at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi on 24 April, 2018. The 2018 shortlist, with author names in alphabetical order, is as follows:
| Author | Title | Country of origin | Publisher |
| Amir Tag Elsir | Flowers in Flames | Sudan | Dar Al Saqi |
| Aziz Mohammed | The Critical Case of “K” | Saudi Arabia | Dar Tanweer, Lebanon |
| Ibrahim Nasrallah | The Second War of the Dog | Palestine/Jordan | Arab Scientific Publishers |
| Shahad Al Rawi | The Baghdad Clock | Iraq | Dar al-Hikma, London |
| Walid Shurafa | Heir of the Tombstones | Palestine | Al Ahlia |
| Dima Wannous | The Frightened Ones | Syria | Dar al-Adab |
To celebrate all six shortlisted authors and novels for the 2018 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, a special series of events are taking place in Abu Dhabi. These are:
- Sunday 22 April, Emirates Writers’ Union, Abu Dhabi National Theatre, 7.30pm: An event in partnership with the Emirates Writers’ Union and NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, will see writer and broadcaster Yassin Adnan chair a panel of five of the shortlisted authors.
- Monday 23 April, NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, 6.30pm : Shortlisted author Walid Shurafa will speak about his novel Heir of the Tombstones. Shurafa has been invited to speak at the university by the co-curator of Permanent Temporariness, an exhibition at the NYU Abu Dhabi art gallery which focuses on the life of refugees, in particular, the Palestinians, which is the focus of his novel. This event will be in Arabic.
Following the announcement of the winning novel on the evening of Tuesday 24 April, the winner will take part in their first public event as the winner of the Prize, alongside the five shortlisted authors, on the opening day of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. Winning and shortlisted authors will take part in a salon event hosted under the patronage of Sheikha Sheikha bint Mohammed bin Khalid Al Nahyan.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is recognised as the leading literary prize in the Arab world. It is awarded for prose fiction in Arabic and each of the six shortlisted finalists receives $10,000, with a further $50,000 going to the winner. Last year’s winner of the Prize was “A Small Death” by Mohammed Hasan Alwan.
“Fulfilling its ambition to increase the international reach of Arabic fiction, the Prize provides funding for English translation for its winners. This year has seen the publication of 2014 winner Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad by Oneworld in the UK and Penguin Books in the US. Its translation rights have been sold for a further 12 languages including Cantonese and Mandarin,” said the organisers in a statement.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is run with the support, as its mentor, of the Booker Prize Foundation in London and sponsored by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi).
