The shortlist for the 2020 ArabLit Story Prize will be announced in mid-September, 2020.

The ArabLit Story Prize is an award for the best short stories, in any genre, newly translated from Arabic into English. Translators must have rights to the work, and translations must have been previously unpublished.

Stories will be judged primarily on the quality of the translated work as a thing-in-itself, although translators must also submit the Arabic original, as this must be a translation, not a loose adaptation nor a work written originally in English.

Submission materials must include: 1) Cover letter with the name of author, translator, story, and length. 2) The story in translation, rendered as 3000 words or fewer in English, attached as a Word document. 3) The story in the original Arabic, preferably in the same Word document. 4) Some evidence you have the rights to translate and publish this story, such as an email from the author or a scanned note.

Submissions will be taken through Submittable, not via email.

Note: It is preferable that you do not put author or translator’s name on the attached works. In any case, names will be stripped off before they are sent to judges.

Questions about submissions can be sent to info@arablit.org.

The prize: $500 to the winner, split between author and translator. Shortlisted stories will have the opportunity to be published in the ArabLit Quarterly as well as a future anthology.

Submit now.