Arab American Book Award

The Arab American Book Award, established in 2006, is an annual literary award to celebrate and support the research of, and the written work of, Arab Americans and their culture. The Arab American Book Award encourages the publication and excellence of books that preserve and advance the understanding, knowledge, and resources of the Arab American community by celebrating the thoughts and lives of Arab Americans. The purpose of the Award is to inspire authors, educate readers and foster a respect and understanding of the Arab American culture.^[1]

Arab American Book Award
First awarded	2006
Last awarded	Active
Website	arabamericanmuseum.org/book-awards/

The Arab American Book Award was brought about by the Arab American National Museum and faculty members of the nearby University of Toledo. The winning titles are chosen by groups of selected readers including respected authors, university professors, artists and AANM staff. The Awards are given during an invitation only event in the Fall of the award year. The AANM first gave these awards in 2007 for books published in 2006; for 2007, the number of submissions more than doubled from the inaugural year.^[2]

To help ensure the continuity of the Arab American Book Award a special endowment fund has been launched with a $10,000 gift from Drs. A. Adnan and Barbara C. Aswad. Dr. Barbara C. Aswad is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and a past president of the Middle Eastern Studies Association and a Board Member Emerita for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), parent organization of the Arab American National Museum. Dr. A. Adnan Aswad is Professor Emeritus of Engineering at the University of Michigan–Dearborn. The Aswads, now based in Los Angeles, were inspired to make the gift after the inaugural Book Award ceremony in Fall 2007.^[2]

In 2011, the non-fiction prize was renamed to honor the legacy and contributions to Arab American scholarship of Evelyn Shakir, who died of breast cancer in 2010. In addition to winning the Arab American Book Award for Fiction in 2008, Professor Shakir extensively researched the history of Arab women and wrote the groundbreaking work Bint Arab: Arab and Arab American Women in the United States in 1997. Evelyn's longtime partner, poet George Ellenbogen, established the award in collaboration with the Arab American National Museum.^[3]

Chronology change (2009)

In 2009, The Arab American Book Award Committee changed the name of the '2008 Arab American Book Award' to the '2009 Arab American Book Award' in order to reflect the true award date instead of the publication date of the winning books. All dates in the previous Award years were also changed retroactively. While the date within the Award name has changed, the rules regarding the publication dates for eligible submissions have not.

Award recipients

Adult fiction

Winners and honorable mentions in Adult fiction^[4]

Year	Author(s)	Title	Result	Ref.
2007	Hisham Matar	In the Country of Men	Winner	[5]
2008	Evelyn Shakir	Remember Me to Lebanon	Winner	[6]
	Diana Abu-Jaber	Origin	Honorable mention	[6]
2009	Randa Jarrar	A Map of Home: A Novel	Winner	[7]
2010	Etel Adnan	Master of the Eclipse: And Other Stories	Winner	[8]
2011	Thérèse Soukar Chehade	Loom: a Novel	Winner	[9][10]
2012	Diana Abu-Jaber	Birds of Paradise	Winner	[11]
	Hisham Matar	Anatomy of a Disappearance	Honorable mention	[11]
2013	Joseph Geha	Lebanese Blonde	Winner	[12]
	Hedy Habra	Flying Carpets	Honorable mention	[12]
2014	Sinan Antoon	The Corpse Washer	Winner	[13]
	Claire Messud	The Woman Upstairs	Honorable mention	[13]
2015	Rabih Alameddine	An Unnecessary Woman	Winner (tie)	[14][15]
	Laila Lalami	The Moor's Account
2016	Susan Muaddi Darraj	A Curious Land	Winner	[16]
	Rajia Hassib	In the Language of Miracles	Honorable mention	[16]
2017	Rabih Alameddine	The Angel of History	Winner	[17]
	Mona Awad	13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl	Honorable mention	[17]
2018	Hala Alyan	Salt Houses	Winner	[18]
2019	Lena Mahmoud	Amreekiya	Winner	[19]
2020	Laila Lalami	The Other Americans	Winner	[20][21][22]
	Etaf Rum	A Woman is No Man	Honorable mention	[20]
2021	Susan Abulhawa	Against the Loveless World	Winner	[21][23]
	Dima Alzayat	Alligator And Other Stories	Honorable mention	[23]
2022	Eman Quotah	Bride of the Sea	Winner	[24][21]
2023	Chelsea Abdullah	The Stardust Thief	Winner (tie)	[21][25][26]
	Noor Naga	If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English

Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award

Prior to 2011, this award was referred to primarily as the Non-Fiction Award.

Winners and honorable mentions in non-fiction^[4]

Year	Author(s)	Title	Result	Ref.
2007	Rashid Khalidi	The Iron Cage	Winner	[5]
	Randa Kayyali	The Arab Americans	Honorable mention	[5]
	Tim Jon Semmerling	“Evil” Arabs in American Popular Film
2008	John Tofik Karam	Another Arabesque	Winner	[6]
	Raff Ellis	Kisses from a Distance	Honorable mention	[6]
	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	[7]
	Fayeq Oweis	The Encyclopedia of Arab American Artists	Honorable mention	[7]
	Saree Makdisi	Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation
2010	Gregory Orfalea	Angeleno Days: An Arab American Writer on Family, Place, and Politics	Winner	[8]
	Louise Cainkar	Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience After 9/11	Honorable mention	[8]
	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	[9][10]
	Manal M. Omar	Barefoot in Baghdad	Honorable mention	[9][10]
2012	Rabab Abdulhadi, Evelyn Alsultany and Nadine Naber (eds.)	Arab and Arab-American Feminisms: Gender, Violence, & Belonging edited	Winner	[11]
	Steven Salaita	Modern Arab-American Fiction: A Reader's Guide	Honorable mention	[11]
2013	Anthony Shadid	House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and Lost Middle East	Winner	[12]
	Sophia Al Maria	The Girl Who Fell to Earth	Honorable mention	[12]
	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	[13]
	Evelyn Alsultany and Ella Shohat	Between the Middle East and the Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora edited	Honorable mention	[13]
	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	[14][15]
2016	Moustafa Bayoumi	This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror	Winner (tie)	[16]
	Mona M. Amer and Germine H. Awad	Handbook of Arab American Psychology
2017	Steven Salaita	Inter/Nationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine	Winner	[17]
	Hanan Hammad	Industrial Sexuality: Gender, Urbanization, and Social Transformation in Egypt	Honorable mention	[17]
2018	Pamela E. Pennock	The Rise of the Arab-American Left: Activists, Allies, and Their Fight Against Imperialism and Racism, 1960s–1980s	Winner	[18]
	Mehammed Amadeus Mack	Sexagon: Muslims, France, and the Sexualization of National Culture	Honorable mention	[18]
2019	Oswaldo Truzzi	Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in São Paulo,	Winner	[19]
2020	Massoud Hayoun	When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family's Forgotten History	Winner (tie)	[20][21]
	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	[20]
2021	Sarah M.A. Gualtieri	Arab Routes: Pathways to Syrian California	Winner (tie)	[23][21]
	Helen Zughaib and Elia Zughaib	Stories My Father Told Me
	Sirène Harb	Articulations Of Resistance: Transformative Practices in Contemporary Arab American Poetry	Honorable mention	[23]
2022	Mansoor Adayfe	Don't Forget Us Here	Winner (tie)	[24][21]
	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	[24]
2023	Edward E. Curtis IV	Muslims of the Heartland	Winner (tie)	[21][25][26]
	Ghassan Zeineddine, Nabeel Abraham, and Sally Howell (Eds.)	Hadha Baladuna
	Evelyn Alsultany	Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion	Honorable mention	[25][26]
	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

Children's/Young Adult

Children's/Young Adult winners and honorable mentions^[4][27][28]

Year	Author(s)	Title	Result	Ref.
2007	Eve Bunting with Ted Lewin (illus.)	One Green Apple	Winner	[5]
2008	Ibtisam Barakat	Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood	Winner	[6]
2009	Naomi Shihab Nye	Honeybee: Poems & Short Prose	Winner	[7]
2010	No winner [8]
2011	Diane Stanley	Saving Sky	Winner	[9][10]
	Maha Addasi with Ned Gannon (illus.)	Time to Pray	Honorable mention	[9][10]
2012	No winner
2013	Karen Leggett Abouraya and Susan L. Roth	Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt's Treasured Books	Winner	[12]
	Tahereh Mafi	Shatter Me	Honorable mention	[12]
2014	Yvonne Wakim Dennis and Maha Addasi	Kids Guide to Arab American History	Winner	[13]
	Saima S. Hussain	The Arab World Thought of It	Honorable mention	[13]
2015	Naomi Shihab Nye	The Turtle of Oman	Winner	[14][15]
	Elsa Marston with Claire Ewart (illus.)	The Olive Tree	Honorable mention	[14]
2016	No Winner [16]
2017	Michelle Chalfoun	The Treasure of Maria Mamoun	Winner	[17]
	Hayan Charara	The Three Lucys	Honorable mention	[17]
	Ibtisam Barakat	Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine
2018	No Winner [18]
2019	Hoda Kotb	I’ve Loved You Since Forever	Winner	[19]
	Somaiya Daud	Mirage	Honorable mention	[19]
2020	Malaka Gharib	I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir	Winner	[20][29]
	Jasmine Warga	Other Words for Home	Honorable mention	[20]
2021	Aya Khalil with Anait Semirdzhyan (illus.)	The Arabic Quilt	Winner (tie)	[23]
	Susan Muaddi Darraj	Farah Rocks Fifth Grade
2022	Safia Elhillo	Home is Not a Country	Winner	[24]
2023	Cathy Camper	Arab, Arab All Year Long!	Winner (C)	[25][26]
	Rashida Tlaib, Adam Tlaib, and Miranda Paul	Mama in Congress: Rashida Tlaib's Journey to Washington	Honorable mention (C)	[25][26]
	Nora Lester Murad	Ida in the Middle	Winner (YA)	[25][26]
	Naomi Shihab Nye	The Turtle of Michigan	Honorable mention (YA)	[25][26]

George Ellenbogen Poetry Award

Winners and honorable mentions in poetry^[4]

Year	Author(s)	Title	Result	Ref.
2009	Suheir Hammad	breaking poems	Winner	[7]
2010	Dunya Mikhail	Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea	Winner	[8]
2011	Khaled Mattawa	Tocqueville	Winner	[9][10]
	Farid Matuk	This Is a Nice Neighborhood	Honorable mention	[9][10]
2012	Philip Metres	Abu Ghraib Arias	Winner	[11]
	Naomi Shihab Nye	Transfer	Honorable mention	[11]
2013	Hala Alyan	Atrium	Winner	[12]
	Etel Adnan	Sea and Fog	Honorable mention	[12]
2014	Philip Metres	A Concordance of Leaves	Winner	[13]
	Farid Matuk	My Daughter La Chola	Honorable mention	[13]
	Fady Joudah	Alight
2015	Matthew Shenoda	Tahrir Suite: Poems	Winner	[14][15]
	Samuel Hazo	And the Time Is: Poems, 1958-2003	Honorable mention	[14]
2016	Nathalie Handal	The Republics	Winner	[16][30]
	Philip Metres	Sand Opera	Honorable mention	[16]
2017	Hayan Charara	Something Sinister	Winner	[17]
	Lauren Camp	One Hundred Hungers	Honorable mention	[17]
	Mohja Kahf	Hagar Poems
2018	Safia Elhillo	The January Children	Winner	[18]
	Lena Khalaf Tuffaha	Water & Salt	Honorable mention	[18]
2019	Fady Joudah	Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance	Winner	[19]
	Noor Al-Samarrai	El Cerrito	Honorable mention	[19]
2020	Zaina Alsous	A Theory of Birds	Winner	[20]
	Marwa Helal	Invasive Species	Honorable mention	[20]
2021	George Abraham	Birthright	Winner	[23]
	Noor Naga	Washes, Prays	Honorable mention	[23]
2022	Threa Almontaser	The Wild Fox of Yemen	Winner	[24]
	Eli Tareq Bechelany-Lynch	The Good Arabs	Honorable mention	[24]
2023	Zeina Hashem Beck	O	Winner	[25][26]
	Noor Hindi	DEAR GOD. DEAR BONES. DEAR YELLOW.	Honorable mention	[25][26]
	Lubna Safi	Your Blue and the Quiet Lament

See also

• List of Arab American writers

References

1. Arab American Book Award Official Webpage http://www.arabamericanmuseum.org/bookaward Archived 2018-03-31 at the Wayback Machine
2. Arab American National Museum Press Release, October 13, 2008
3. Evelyn Shakir: Remembering a West Roxbury writing pioneer "Evelyn Shakir: Remembering a West Roxbury writing pioneer - Taunton, MA - the Taunton Gazette". Archived from the original on 2012-04-07. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
4. Howe, Judy. "Research Guides: Award-winning books in the SCC Library: Arab American Book Awards". Sacramento City College. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
5. "2007 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
6. "2008 Arab American Book Award Winners". Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
7. "2009 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
8. "2010 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
9. "2011 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
10. "Awards: PEN/Malamud, Arab American Book Winners". Shelf Awareness. 2011-06-13. Archived from the original on 2022-08-11. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
11. "2012 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
12. "2013 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
13. "2014 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
14. "2015 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
15. Goolrick, Robert (2015-08-10). "Awards: Arab American Book". Shelf Awareness. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
16. "2016 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-02-27. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
17. "2017 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
18. "2018 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
19. "2019 Arab American Book Awards". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
20. "2020 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2021-10-27. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
21. Contreraz, Victoria. "LibGuides: Literary Awards: 2020 - Present". Montana State University. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
22. Weber, Jessica (2020-10-22). "Laila Lalami winner of 2020 Arab American Book Award". Inside UCR. University of California, Riverside. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
23. "2021 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-01-19. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
24. "2022 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2023-05-30. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
25. "2023 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on 2023-10-12. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
26. "Awards: Arab American Book Winners". Shelf Awareness. 2023-09-12. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
27. Melilli, Amanda. "LibGuides: Children's and Young Adult Literature: Arab American Book Awards". University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries. Archived from the original on 2022-11-29. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
28. Kofoed, Sharon. "Research Guides: Handy Topics in the Curriculum Department: Arab American Book Award, Children/Young Adult". University of Nebraska at Kearney. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
29. "2020 Arab American Book Awards Include Award's First-ever Prize for Graphic Memoir". ARABLIT & ARABLIT QUARTERLY. 2020-08-31. Archived from the original on 2022-12-24. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
30. "The newly sworn-in librarian of Congress, Lynda Barry's graphic novel art show, and more". World Literature Today. 2016-09-23. Archived from the original on 2022-12-02. Retrieved 2023-03-13.

External links

• Arab American Book Award, Official Site
• Arab American National Museum Website
• ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services)