Kuwaiti author Mai Al-Nakib wins Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book Award

29 October 2014 Books+Publishing

Kuwaiti author Mai Al-Nakib has won this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) First Book Award for her debut short-story collection The Hidden Light of Objects (Bloomsbury), reports the Bookseller. Al-Nakib’s book was chosen by the public from a collection of 46 debut novels, novellas and short stories by adult and young adult writers attending EIBF, including works published in English for the first time. This year, over 2200 people voted at the festival or online. EIBF director Nick Barley described the winning book as ‘an extraordinarily moving and assured debut collection depicting the lives of ordinary people in a region of the world that is high on the news agenda. Melancholy and yet full of hope, these stories add up to a delicately devastating portrait of the Middle East, the like of which has perhaps never before been rendered in the English language.’ The full list of nominees for the award can be found at the EIBF website here.

Category: International news