Dubai, UAE, January 11, 2018:  The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) is the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. It is given to a novel in Arabic which the judges consider to be the best of that year. 
 
Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage the readership of high quality Arabic literature internationally through the translation and publication of winning and shortlisted novels in other major languages. 
 
At 9am GMT / 1pm GST on Wednesday 17 January, the 2018 longlist of 16 books and the panel of five judges will be announced. The longlist will be chosen from 124 submissions which have all been published in the last 12 months.  
 
The Prize is run with the support, as its mentor, of the Booker Prize Foundation in London and sponsored by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT).