Sheikh Zayed book award continues to drive interest for nominations in its

An assembly of Arab novelists, literary figures and academics have already expressed their interest to participate in Sheikh Zayed Book Award's latest instalment, as the Award continues to drive interest for nominations in its 2013/2014 session. Officials from Sheikh Zayed Book award were present during the meetings of the General Union of Arab Writers at its Permanent Bureau in Abu Dhabi between June 3 and 5 to distribute application forms to Arab novelists, writers and creative authors who attended. The Award also handed application forms to heads of Arab Writers Unions to be distributed to interested applicants in their respective countries. Applicants can also download the form online from the Award's website. The collective monetary value of the Award's categories stands at around 2 million dollars. The Award opened the door to competition on the 15th of last month in nine categories, namely: Best Contribution to the Development of the Country, Children's Literature, The Young Author Award, Translation, Literature, Fine Arts, The Best Technology in the Field of Culture, Publishing and Distribution, and the Cultural Personality of the year Award. The nominations will be accepted through 15 September, 2013. Once completed and signed, the application forms should be submitted to the Sheikh Zayed Book Award Offices along with the Candidate's Resume, Passport copy, Personal photo, and five copies of the nominated work in a book format - works nominated for the Award of "Publishing and Technology" can be in digital format. For cultural personality of the year award, applicants should be nominated by academic, research and cultural institutions, by literary associations and universities or by three intellectually and culturally prominent figures. For the other eight categories, applicants are requested to fill in the Nomination Form in person. All nominated works must have been published in the last two years and shouldn't be previously awarded by an international/ prominent Prize. The work must be written in Arabic, except for works nominated for the Translation Award (they could be translated either from or to Arabic), and the works nominated for the newly devised category for "Arabic Culture in Other Languages" which can be in English, Italian or Russian for the Eighth session.