Sharjah Prize for the Emirati Book

Abstract

This item presents the Sharjah Prize for the Emirati Book as an institutional cultural initiative designed to encourage local authorship, support books related to the United Arab Emirates in subject and content, and stimulate publishing and printing within the Emirati cultural environment. The text shows that the prize was established in response to a broader cultural vision aimed at strengthening local intellectual production and meeting the demands of scientific and knowledge development, while linking the prize to the annual context of the Sharjah International Book Fair as a platform for showcasing national cultural and publishing achievements. It also makes clear that the prize is not limited to honoring an individual author, but extends to supporting the local book through authorship, preparation, translation, and printing, thus reflecting an integrated understanding of the book-production cycle.

The document further outlines the organizational structure of the prize by specifying its principal categories, eligibility conditions, submission rules, judging procedures, and financial and symbolic awards. These elements reveal the prize’s function as an instrument of cultural policy intended to improve the quality of the Emirati book, strengthen the use of standard Arabic, and promote professional competition in authorship and publishing. The item therefore serves as a concise reference document for the study of book awards in the UAE and for understanding the role played by cultural institutions in fostering national intellectual production and linking it to broader knowledge activity.