The shortlist for the Palestine Book Awards 2021 was announced on Monday, June 14, 2021.
The Palestine Book Awards were set up to honour the best new books about any aspect of Palestine in English in 2012. Some of the winners have been Isabella Hammad, Noura Erakat, Nabil Anani, Ghassan Zaqtanhas, Reja-e Busailah, Susan Abulhawa, Rashid Khalidi, Nathalie Handal, Finbarr Barry Flood, and Salim Tamari.
The judges for the 2021 edition are Victoria Brittain – Former associate foreign editor of the Guardian and author; Dr Ibrahim Darwish – Journalist with Al-Hiwar TV; Subhi Hadidi – Literary critic and political commentator; Sawad Hussain- An award-winning Arabic-English literary translator; Prof Nur Masalha – Member of the Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS, University of London; Alan Waddams – Former Chairman of Medical Aid for Palestinians; and Haifa Zangana – an Iraqi novelist and author.
Thirty-nine books were submitted for this year’s prize, and seven books were shortlisted, from food to fiction to academic work. They are;
- Timothy Brennan, Places of Mind A Life of Edward Said (Bloomsbury Publishing)
- Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics (The News Press)
- Sahar Mustafah, The Beauty of your Face (Legend Press)
- Sonia Nimir (Marcia Lynx Qualey (Translator)), Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands (Interlink Publishing)
- Linda Sarsour, We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders: A Memoir of Love and Resistance (37 Ink)
- Lima Shawa, A Taste of Gaza: Food and Traditions from Home (Rimal Books)
- Erik Skare, A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Faith, Awareness, and Revolution in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press)
The winners of the awards will be revealed later in the year.
