Arab American Book Award facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Arab American Book Award |
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| First awarded | 2006 |
| Last awarded | Active |
The Arab American Book Award is a special prize given out every year to celebrate books written by and about Arab Americans. Started in 2006, the award honors amazing stories and research that share the culture and experiences of Arab Americans with the world.
The main goal of the award is to encourage authors to write great books and to help readers learn more about Arab American life. This helps create more respect and understanding for the culture.
The award was created by the Arab American National Museum and professors from the University of Toledo. A team of experts, including authors and professors, reads all the submitted books and chooses the winners. The first awards were given in 2007 for books that came out in 2006. The event quickly became popular, with many more books submitted in its second year.
To make sure the award could continue for a long time, Drs. A. Adnan and Barbara C. Aswad gave a generous gift of $10,000 to start a special fund. Both are respected professors who were inspired to support the award after seeing the first ceremony in 2007.
Contents
Honoring a Special Author
In 2011, the award for non-fiction books was renamed to honor Evelyn Shakir, an important Arab American writer and professor who passed away in 2010.
Professor Shakir had won the fiction award in 2008. She was known for her book Bint Arab: Arab and Arab American Women in the United States, which was a major work about the history of Arab women. Her partner, the poet George Ellenbogen, worked with the museum to create the award in her name.
A Small Change to the Award Year
In 2009, the award committee made a small change. They decided to name the awards after the year they were given, not the year the books were published. For example, the "2008 Arab American Book Award" became the "2009 Arab American Book Award." This helped avoid confusion, but the rules for which books could be entered stayed the same.
Award Winners
Adult Fiction
This award is for novels and story collections written for adults.
| Year | Author(s) | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Hisham Matar | In the Country of Men | Winner | |
| 2008 | Evelyn Shakir | Remember Me to Lebanon | Winner | |
| Diana Abu-Jaber | Origin | Honorable mention | ||
| 2009 | Randa Jarrar | A Map of Home: A Novel | Winner | |
| 2010 | Etel Adnan | Master of the Eclipse: And Other Stories | Winner | |
| 2011 | Thérèse Soukar Chehade | Loom: a Novel | Winner | |
| 2012 | Diana Abu-Jaber | Birds of Paradise | Winner | |
| Hisham Matar | Anatomy of a Disappearance | Honorable mention | ||
| 2013 | Joseph Geha | Lebanese Blonde | Winner | |
| Hedy Habra | Flying Carpets | Honorable mention | ||
| 2014 | Sinan Antoon | The Corpse Washer | Winner | |
| Claire Messud | The Woman Upstairs | Honorable mention | ||
| 2015 | Rabih Alameddine | An Unnecessary Woman | Winner (tie) | |
| Laila Lalami | The Moor's Account | |||
| 2016 | Susan Muaddi Darraj | A Curious Land | Winner | |
| Rajia Hassib | In the Language of Miracles | Honorable mention | ||
| 2017 | Rabih Alameddine | The Angel of History | Winner | |
| Mona Awad | 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl | Honorable mention | ||
| 2018 | Hala Alyan | Salt Houses | Winner | |
| 2019 | Lena Mahmoud | Amreekiya | Winner | |
| 2020 | Laila Lalami | The Other Americans | Winner | |
| Etaf Rum | A Woman is No Man | Honorable mention | ||
| 2021 | Susan Abulhawa | Against the Loveless World | Winner | |
| Dima Alzayat | Alligator And Other Stories | Honorable mention | ||
| 2022 | Eman Quotah | Bride of the Sea | Winner | |
| 2023 | Chelsea Abdullah | The Stardust Thief | Winner (tie) | |
| Noor Naga | If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English |
Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award
This award for true stories and research is named in memory of the writer Evelyn Shakir.
| Year | Author(s) | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Rashid Khalidi | The Iron Cage | Winner | |
| Randa Kayyali | The Arab Americans | Honorable mention | ||
| Tim Jon Semmerling | “Evil” Arabs in American Popular Film | |||
| 2008 | John Tofik Karam | Another Arabesque | Winner | |
| Raff Ellis | Kisses from a Distance | Honorable mention | ||
| Nawal Nasrallah | Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchens | |||
| 2009 | Moustafa Bayoumi | How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America | Winner | |
| Fayeq Oweis | The Encyclopedia of Arab American Artists | Honorable mention | ||
| Saree Makdisi | Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation | |||
| 2010 | Gregory Orfalea | Angeleno Days: An Arab American Writer on Family, Place, and Politics | Winner | |
| Louise Cainkar | Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience After 9/11 | Honorable mention | ||
| Alia Malek | A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories. | |||
| 2011 | Samir Abu-Absi | Arab Americans in Toledo: Cultural Assimilation and Community Involvement edited | Winner | |
| Manal M. Omar | Barefoot in Baghdad | Honorable mention | ||
| 2012 | Rabab Abdulhadi, Evelyn Alsultany and Nadine Naber (eds.) | Arab and Arab-American Feminisms: Gender, Violence, & Belonging edited | Winner | |
| Steven Salaita | Modern Arab-American Fiction: A Reader's Guide | Honorable mention | ||
| 2013 | Anthony Shadid | House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and Lost Middle East | Winner | |
| Sophia Al Maria | The Girl Who Fell to Earth | Honorable mention | ||
| Soha Al-Jurf | Even My Voice Is Silence | |||
| 2014 | Nadje Al-Ali and Deborah Al-Najjar | We Are Iraqis: Aesthetics and Politics in a Time of War edited | Winner | |
| Evelyn Alsultany and Ella Shohat | Between the Middle East and the Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora edited | Honorable mention | ||
| Laila el-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt | The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Cultural Journey | |||
| 2015 | Sally Howell | Old Islam in Detroit: Rediscovering the Muslim American Past | Winner | |
| 2016 | Moustafa Bayoumi | This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror | Winner (tie) | |
| Mona M. Amer and Germine H. Awad | Handbook of Arab American Psychology | |||
| 2017 | Steven Salaita | Inter/Nationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine | Winner | |
| Hanan Hammad | Industrial ...: Gender, Urbanization, and Social Transformation in Egypt | Honorable mention | ||
| 2018 | Pamela E. Pennock | The Rise of the Arab-American Left: Activists, Allies, and Their Fight Against Imperialism and Racism, 1960s–1980s | Winner | |
| Mehammed Amadeus Mack | ...: Muslims, France, and the ... of National Culture | Honorable mention | ||
| 2019 | Oswaldo Truzzi | Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in São Paulo, | Winner | |
| 2020 | Massoud Hayoun | When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family's Forgotten History | Winner (tie) | |
| Stacy Fahrenthold | Between the Ottomans and the Entente: The First World War in the Syrian and Lebanese Diaspora, 1908-1925 | |||
| Sherine Hafez | Women of the Midan: The Untold Stories of Egypt's Revolutionaries | Honorable mention | ||
| 2021 | Sarah M.A. Gualtieri | Arab Routes: Pathways to Syrian California | Winner (tie) | |
| Helen Zughaib and Elia Zughaib | Stories My Father Told Me | |||
| Sirène Harb | Articulations Of Resistance: Transformative Practices in Contemporary Arab American Poetry | Honorable mention | ||
| 2022 | Mansoor Adayfe | Don't Forget Us Here | Winner (tie) | |
| Zainab Saleh | Return to Ruin: Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia | |||
| Michael W. Suleiman, Suad Joseph, and Louise Cainkar | Arab American Women: Representation and Refusal | Honorable mention | ||
| 2023 | Edward E. Curtis IV | Muslims of the Heartland | Winner (tie) | |
| Ghassan Zeineddine, Nabeel Abraham, and Sally Howell (Eds.) | Hadha Baladuna | |||
| Evelyn Alsultany | Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion | Honorable mention | ||
| Louise Cainkar, Pauline Homsi Vinson, and Amira Jarmakani (Eds.) | Sajjilu: A Reader in SWANA Studies | Honorable mention | ||
| Luma Mufleh | Learning America: One Woman's Fight for Educational Justice for Refugee Children | Honorable mention |
Books for Children and Young Adults
This award recognizes outstanding books for younger readers.
| Year | Author(s) | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Eve Bunting with Ted Lewin (illus.) | One Green Apple | Winner | |
| 2008 | Ibtisam Barakat | Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood | Winner | |
| 2009 | Naomi Shihab Nye | Honeybee: Poems & Short Prose | Winner | |
| 2010 | No winner | |||
| 2011 | Diane Stanley | Saving Sky | Winner | |
| Maha Addasi with Ned Gannon (illus.) | Time to Pray | Honorable mention | ||
| 2012 | No winner | |||
| 2013 | Karen Leggett Abouraya and Susan L. Roth | Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt's Treasured Books | Winner | |
| Tahereh Mafi | Shatter Me | Honorable mention | ||
| 2014 | Yvonne Wakim Dennis and Maha Addasi | Kids Guide to Arab American History | Winner | |
| Saima S. Hussain | The Arab World Thought of It | Honorable mention | ||
| 2015 | Naomi Shihab Nye | The Turtle of Oman | Winner | |
| Elsa Marston with Claire Ewart (illus.) | The Olive Tree | Honorable mention | ||
| 2016 | No Winner | |||
| 2017 | Michelle Chalfoun | The Treasure of Maria Mamoun | Winner | |
| Hayan Charara | The Three Lucys | Honorable mention | ||
| Ibtisam Barakat | Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine | |||
| 2018 | No Winner | |||
| 2019 | Hoda Kotb | I’ve Loved You Since Forever | Winner | |
| Somaiya Daud | Mirage | Honorable mention | ||
| 2020 | Malaka Gharib | I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir | Winner | |
| Jasmine Warga | Other Words for Home | Honorable mention | ||
| 2021 | Aya Khalil with Anait Semirdzhyan (illus.) | The Arabic Quilt | Winner (tie) | |
| Susan Muaddi Darraj | Farah Rocks Fifth Grade | |||
| 2022 | Safia Elhillo | Home is Not a Country | Winner | |
| 2023 | Cathy Camper | Arab, Arab All Year Long! | Winner (C) | |
| Rashida Tlaib, Adam Tlaib, and Miranda Paul | Mama in Congress: Rashida Tlaib's Journey to Washington | Honorable mention (C) | ||
| Nora Lester Murad | Ida in the Middle | Winner (YA) | ||
| Naomi Shihab Nye | The Turtle of Michigan | Honorable mention (YA) | ||
George Ellenbogen Poetry Award
This award celebrates the best poetry collections.
| Year | Author(s) | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Suheir Hammad | breaking poems | Winner | |
| 2010 | Dunya Mikhail | Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea | Winner | |
| 2011 | Khaled Mattawa | Tocqueville | Winner | |
| Farid Matuk | This Is a Nice Neighborhood | Honorable mention | ||
| 2012 | Philip Metres | Abu Ghraib Arias | Winner | |
| Naomi Shihab Nye | Transfer | Honorable mention | ||
| 2013 | Hala Alyan | Atrium | Winner | |
| Etel Adnan | Sea and Fog | Honorable mention | ||
| 2014 | Philip Metres | A Concordance of Leaves | Winner | |
| Farid Matuk | My Daughter La Chola | Honorable mention | ||
| Fady Joudah | Alight | |||
| 2015 | Matthew Shenoda | Tahrir Suite: Poems | Winner | |
| Samuel Hazo | And the Time Is: Poems, 1958-2003 | Honorable mention | ||
| 2016 | Nathalie Handal | The Republics | Winner | |
| Philip Metres | Sand Opera | Honorable mention | ||
| 2017 | Hayan Charara | Something Sinister | Winner | |
| Lauren Camp | One Hundred Hungers | Honorable mention | ||
| Mohja Kahf | Hagar Poems | |||
| 2018 | Safia Elhillo | The January Children | Winner | |
| Lena Khalaf Tuffaha | Water & Salt | Honorable mention | ||
| 2019 | Fady Joudah | Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance | Winner | |
| Noor Al-Samarrai | El Cerrito | Honorable mention | ||
| 2020 | Zaina Alsous | A Theory of Birds | Winner | |
| Marwa Helal | Invasive Species | Honorable mention | ||
| 2021 | George Abraham | Birthright | Winner | |
| Noor Naga | Washes, Prays | Honorable mention | ||
| 2022 | Threa Almontaser | The Wild Fox of Yemen | Winner | |
| Eli Tareq Bechelany-Lynch | The Good Arabs | Honorable mention | ||
| 2023 | Zeina Hashem Beck | O | Winner | |
| Noor Hindi | DEAR GOD. DEAR BONES. DEAR YELLOW. | Honorable mention | ||
| Lubna Safi | Your Blue and the Quiet Lament |
See also
- List of Arab American writers
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Arab American Book Award Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.