MEMO's Palestine Book Awards 2013
The Middle East Monitor's Palestine Book Awards is back for a second year…
The Middle East Monitor (MEMO), a media research institute based in London, invites you to submit your entries for our second annual Palestine Book Awards.
MEMO will be hosting an annual award ceremony to honour and promote the best books written in English on the subject of Palestine. The idea is to promote existing books on Palestine as well as to encourage new writers to write about this sensitive but important topic drawing attention to a cause that is at the heart of the conflict raging in the Middle East.
In November 2013 we will be hosting a book awards evening which will serve as an award ceremony in which a monetary award will be gifted to the person judged to have written the "Best Book on Palestine 2012/2013". Two runners up will also be awarded. In addition to this the winners will receive plaques and will also be given the opportunity to have their books reviewed by our own organisation as well as many of our sister organisations. There will also be potential for interviews and other promotional opportunities for them to increase awareness and sales of their books. The award ceremony will be held as an annual invitation-only evening to which all the nominees will be invited as well as other publishers, authors, journalists, academics, and politicians.
Last year's winners included:
- Jen Marlowe and Sami Al-Jundi [Overall Winners of the Palestine Book Award 2012] for their book The Hour of Sunlight published by Nation Books.
- The Academic Award went to American academic Sara Roy for her book Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector published by Princeton University Press.
- The Special Runner Up Award went to Ben White for his book Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy published by Pluto Press.
For information on past winners and other shortlisted books, click here.
Our panel of five judges this year are:
- Victoria Brittain (Former associate foreign editor of the Guardian and author)
- Ibrahim Darwish (Palestinian Academic)
- Peter Clark (Trustee for the Mann/Booker Arabic prize)
- Haifa Zangana (Iraqi novelist and author)
- Ahmad Khalidi (senior associate member of St Antony's College, Oxford, and a former Palestinian negotiator)
MEMO Palestine Book Awards 2013 – Criteria:
The books that will be in the running to be considered for this prize will be those submitted by publishers, authors or chosen by the judges themselves. In order for us to consider any books that you have published/written all that is required is for you to send us copies of the books you would like to put forward.
In order for the books to qualify the only eligibility criteria are that they:
- must be written in English, or a translated English edition be readily available
- must be published at some point between June 2012 and June 2013 (which is when the initial shortlist draft will be drawn up)
- judges must be able to receive a hardbound copy of each book
- can be works of fiction or non-fiction (multi-authored books will be considered)
- can be works of poetry, although the publishing date restrictions do not apply
We are happy to consider as many books as you are willing to send us. If you are not connected to any books that qualify for consideration this time around please feel free to pass this letter on to other publishers and authors you feel may be eligible.
Please email [email protected] for more details
