It has been announced that Dunya Mikhail will be the recipient of the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture, alongside actress Helen Al-Janabi. Decided by an international jury of experts, the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize rewards two laureates each year who, through their work and outstanding achievements, display a strong commitment to the promotion of Arab culture around the world.
Now in its eighteenth year, the initiative is part of UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences Programme and the Sharjah Prize is valued at $60,000, which is divided equally between the two recipients. This year’s jury applauded both remarkable women for their ability to communicate on complex issues while remaining accessible for a large audience, along with their dedication to artistic excellence and social dialogue.
Born in Baghdad, Dunya Mikhail initially worked as a translator and journalist before moving to the United States in 1996, where she earned an MA at Wayne State University. Her powerful writing, translation, poetry, and prose, both in Arabic and English, speak to the horrors and hardships of war, migration and loss of country, and the complexities that accompany it. The nuance of Mikhail’s work, particularly her poetry, is fuelled by a deep sense of identity: as a refugee, an artist, and a woman. She has published a number of poetry collections and her debut novel, The Bird Tattoo, was released in Arabic in 2020, shortlisted in 2021 for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. The English-language edition will be published by Pegasus in December 2022.
The Sharjah Prize award ceremony will be held at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on May 30th.