The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) was launched in 2007 to address the limited international availability of high-quality Arab fiction. We are delighted that past winner Raja Alem and former judges Ghalia Qabbani and Paul Starkey will be joining us for a discussion about the importance and global impact of this prize, and the role that fiction can play in promoting cultural understanding between nations. Saudi novelist Raja Alem was the joint winner of this year’s IPAF for The Doves' Necklace, an astonishing story that reveals the secret life of the holy city of Mecca. Ghalia Qabbani, Syrian author and journalist, grew up in Kuwait. She graduated in law in 1979. Before moving to the UK in 1994, she worked for Kuwaiti newspaper Al Watan. She writes articles and essays for a number of Arabic newspapers and has published two short story collections and a novel. She currently lives in London. UK.British author and translator Paul Starkey is Head of the Arabic Department at the University of Durham and Co-Director of the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World. This event will be chaired by Margaret Obank, publisher and administrator for the Banipal Trust for Arab Literature.

Please note that former prize winner Bahaa Taher is now unable to join us for this event.