LOC22:51
19:51 GMT
PARIS, Feb 21 (KUNA) -- The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) announced on Tuesday the award winners of the 2011
UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture.
The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, will award the prize to
Lebanese author Elias Khoury and Brazilian publisher Joao Baptista de Medeiros
Vargens in a ceremony on 27 February, the organization said in a statement.
The laureates are being recognized for their work to increase awareness of
Arab culture in the world, the statement added, noting that the ceremony will
take place at UNESCO's Headquarters in Paris.
The UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture was established at the initiative
of the United Arab Emirates to reward the efforts of a national of an Arab
country and a national of any other country who has contributed, through his
or her artistic, intellectual or promotional work, towards the development and
dissemination of Arab culture in the world. Each laureate receives USD 30,000.
Elias Khoury, born in Beirut in 1948, is a novelist, playwright, critic and
academic. He is the author of a dozen novels, notably The Little Mountain,
White Masks and Gate of the Sun. His books have been translated into more than
ten languages including Hebrew.
As editor in chief of the literary supplement of the An Nahar newspaper
between 1992 and 2009, Khoury played a pivotal role in the promotion of Arab
culture.
Joao Baptista de Medeiros Vargens, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1952, is a
publisher, writer, translator, lexicographer and professor of Arab language
and culture.
He is being rewarded for his engagement in the study of the influence of
the Arab language on Portuguese, and for his work shedding light on Arab
Islamic culture on Brazil and in the Portuguese world in general.
The 10th anniversary of the Prize will be celebrated this year with a
thematic debate about Art and culture, instruments of Peace. The program would
include two roundtable debates, one about perspectives on new forms of
artistic expression by young Arabs and the other on Arab heritage and cultural
Diversity. (end)
amm.ma
KUNA 212251 Feb 12NNNN