Khalid Khalifa Award

Every time I met my late friend, the novelist Khaled Khalifa (1964–2023), and as our meeting drew to a close, the same obsession would strike my mind: Khalifa was exactly himself—in his life, behavior, conversations, novels, dreams, laughter, attire, hairstyle, and beard, and in his love for every moment of life. We used to meet at long intervals, but as soon as we shook hands and embraced, spiritual conversations would open up between us, as if we had parted only the day before. Thus, when I received the news of his death, the first thought that came to my mind was: “There is no resisting God’s decree.” I told myself: Khalifa lived his life in his own unique way, as if he were absorbing every drop of his day. He came lightly, and he departed lightly. However, his true friends noticed this, and they insisted that he not truly depart, but remain present in a literary manner befitting an important Arab novelist. Thus, the “Khaled Khalifa Prize for the Novel” was born in 2024. I always repeat: The prize is a project of goodness for everyone; for its owner and founder, for the literary genre it engages with, for the writer and translator, for the reading public, and finally for culture in its broader and deeper sense. The prize was born to be the first Syrian prize open to all Arab participants, and it came entirely free from any government support or interference. It is an initiative by Khalifa’s true friends, who loved art and believed in it as a lasting human message among people. The prize celebrates “the art of the novel, which the novelist Khaled Khalifa loved and excelled in, and it is directed at novelists who publish their first novel, aiming to honor and support novelists who embody the spirit of innovation, freedom of expression, and cultural depth.” Our great Arab homeland, fragmented and wretched, is teeming, despite its oppressive conditions and despite the fierce infighting among the people of a single country, with young writers, girls and boys, who possess talent and dreams worthy of being noticed and embraced. Nothing is more fitting for this than an literary prize bearing the name of a creative Arab novelist. Establishing a literary prize in the Arab homeland is akin to a “lighthouse,” a beacon at sea that takes the sailors’ hands in the darkness of night. The global cultural landscape now views a prize in an author’s trajectory as the most important indicator of their creativity. Therefore, launching a prize for the Arab novel in the name of one of its sons represents an important addition to the Arab prize landscape, especially given the high professionalism, transparency, and integrity with which the prize has been known since its inception. Although it offers the winner an amount not exceeding one thousand dollars, one of France’s greatest prizes, “Le Prix Goncourt,” established in 1903, offers the winner only a symbolic ten euros, but it guarantees him massive sales for his work and grants him fame that propels him toward international recognition, perhaps even immortality. The first edition of the prize was held at the National Library in Damascus on September 30, 2025, and was won by the Syrian novelist Manahal Al-Sahwi for her novel “Praying Mantis Woman.” The second edition (2026) was won by the novel “The Martyrs” by Tunisian novelist Imad Ali Qaida, and the celebration was held in the Syrian city of Latakia, which Khaled Khalifa loved. True friends, including Hussein Darwish, Sayed Mahmoud, Boulos Hallaq, Khaled Mansour, Fadi Assaf, Lina Sinjab, and others, founded the Khaled Khalifa Prize for the Novel. And what is more beautiful than keeping the name of a writer present, renewed, and linked to creativity, youth, and humanity? This alone is what allows literature to win its final battle against absence. Talib Al-Rifai