Three Moroccan books have qualified for the shortlist of the “Golden Narrative Award” in 2025, organized by the Abu Dhabi Center for Arabic Language, in two distinct categories for short stories.
The shortlist for the “Short Story – Published Narrative Works” category includes four titles: “The Journey to Mount Qaf” by Moroccan author Mohamed Said Hajjaj, “Everything You Need to Know About She” by Egyptian writer Ahmed El-Fakharany, “The Era of the Pearl Master” by Kuwaiti author Youssef Dhiab Khalifa, and “The Return of the Chest Butterfly” by Danish-Iraqi author Dana Ghali.
In the “Short Story – Unpublished Narrative Works” category, six works made the list: “Wild Voices” by Moroccan author Mustafa Milh, “Bleeding Specters” by Moroccan writer Abdel Bar Solidi, “More Than Forty Lookalikes” by Egyptian author Mohamed Mansour Mohamed, “Double Tales” by Egyptian writer Sherif Saleh, “The Well of Absence – From the Tales of Water in Omani Myths” by Omani author Ghalia Ali, and “The Dress Tree” by Syrian author Noor Al-Mousli.
The shortlist for the “Popular Narratives” category features four works: “Far Away with Grace – Love Poems among Bedouin Women” by Egyptian-American author Miral Al-Tahawy, “The Saudi Popular Tale Written in Classical Arabic (A Study in Textual Interrelations)” by author Manal bint Salem Al-Qathami, “The Biography of King Al-Badrnar bin Al-Nahrawan as Narrated by Ahmed Al-Rabat Al-Halabi” by Egyptian writer Amr Abdel Aziz Mounir, and “Tales from the Oases – Returning to Roots” by Dr. Susan Al-Sharif from Egypt.
