The Diplomat
Casa Árabe has announced the jury’s decision for the third edition of the “Friendship” Award. Following the deliberation session, held on February 17th in Madrid, the award was granted to Ediciones del Oriente y del Mediterráneo, a publishing house founded in 1989 by Fernando García Burillo and Inmaculada Jiménez Morell “to promote the literature and societies of both sides of the Mediterranean Sea.”
The jury recognized its outstanding work in promoting knowledge and dissemination of Arab culture in Spain, through the translation and publication of important works by authors from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as by renowned Spanish and European specialists in the field, in genres including poetry, narrative, and essay. Since 1989, the publishing house has made a sustained and rigorous effort that has significantly contributed to strengthening mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue. The publishing house, a family business with 37 years of experience, is a pioneer in publishing peripheral literatures in Spanish, thus facilitating access to other realities through literary production in diverse languages. Its catalog includes books of poetry, novels, essays, works dedicated to photography, cooking, and graphic novels by Arab authors, either by birth or origin, grouped into different collections (Poetry, Letters, Memories of the Mediterranean, The Dove’s Necklace, Encounters, Societies, Transversals, Correspondences, Journeys, DisEnso, Afro-American Library Madrid, Tiles, Flavors, and Stories). It has published countless contemporary Arab authors, some as renowned as the Syrian poet Adonis, the Palestinian Mahmud Darwish, Mohammed Bennis, Murid Barghouti, Dris Chraibi, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Yabra Ibrahim Yabra, Fatima Mernissi, Samira Khalil, and Radwa Ashur. It has also published classic works of Eastern literature, such as the poems of Al-Mutanabbi and the Rubaiyat of Rumi.
Over the years, its catalog has included major names, but it has also given space to emerging authors and Spanish academics who study contemporary Arab societies, such as Pedro Martínez Montávez, Ignacio Álvarez Ossorio, Luz Gómez, Laura Mijares, and Ignacio Gutiérrez de Terán. And it has not overlooked the literatures of other regions, including Turkish, Greek, Iranian, Indian, and Japanese, to name a few. As winners of the “Friendship” Award, they will receive a “Praying Figure,” a sculpture created by the internationally renowned artist Rachid Koraïchi, known for his work in sculpture, installations, ceramics, and textiles. The 28 cm tall figure is made of corten steel with a rust effect and sits on a turquoise rust-colored base bearing the artist’s signature, the Casa Árabe logo, and space to engrave the winner’s name and the year. The overall dimensions of the piece are 35 x 21 x 4 cm.
The Casa Árabe “Friendship” Award was created to recognize the work of individuals and public or private, national or international entities that have made outstanding contributions to strengthening the bonds of coexistence, harmony, and understanding between Arab and Spanish societies.
In this third edition, the jury was composed of the Director General of Casa Árabe, Miguel Moro Aguilar, as president, and six members from the fields of culture, language, education, economics, and communication. These are: Tamara El Khoury, PhD in Constitutional Law and associate professor at IE University; Rosa Meneses, journalist and deputy director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CEARC); Leila Nachawati, PhD in Communication and professor at Carlos III University of Madrid; Javier Fonseca, writer and teacher at the School of Writers; Francisco Moreno, president of the Antonio Gala Foundation in Cordoba; and Pablo Delgado, general manager of Strategic Gears Spain.
