DEARBORN — Established American literary luminaries and
compelling new voices inspired by global events are represented among the
winners of the 2011 Arab American Book Award presented by the Arab American
National Museum.

This national literary competition, the only one of its kind
in the U.S., is designed to draw attention to books and authors dealing with
the Arab American experience. The program has attracted increasing numbers of
submissions in its five-year history.

 Four winners
and three honorable mentions emerged from the 28 books published during 2010
that were submitted for consideration by genre-specific review committees:

Winner in the Fiction category is “Loom: a Novel,”
by Thérèse Soukar Chehade.

 Winner of the
Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award is “Arab Americans in Toledo: Cultural
Assimilation and Community Involvement, “edited by Samir Abu-Absi.

 Winner in the
Poetry category is “Tocqueville,” by Khaled Mattawa.

 Winner  in the Children/ Young Adult category
is “Saving Sky,” by Diane Stanley.

 Honorable
Mention in Non-Fiction goes to “Barefoot in Baghdad,” by Manal M.
Omar.

 Honorable
Mention in Poetry goes to “This Isa Nice Neighborhood,” by Farid
Matuk.

 Honorable
Mention for the Children/ Young Adult category is “Time to Pray,” by
Maha Addasi, illustrated by Ned Gannon.

 The 2011 Arab
American Book Award ceremony, set Thursday, September 29 at the Carnegie
Institution, 1530 P Street NW in Washington, D.C., will honor this year’s
winners and celebrate the centennial of Ameen Rihani’s “The Book of
Khaled, ” considered to be the first work of Arab American literature. In
addition, the ceremony will include a tribute to the late Arab American author
Evelyn Shakir; beginning this year, the Book Awards’ Non-Fiction Award will be
named for Shakir.

Submissions are currently being accepted for the 2012 Arab
American Book Award. Authors and publishers may contact Kristin LaLonde at
313.624.0223 or klalonde@accesscommunity.org for nomination forms and criteria.
Submission deadline is February 1, 2012.

 The winning titles are
chosen by groups of selected readers including respected authors, university
professors, artists and AANM staff. The AANM first gave these awards in 2007
for books published in 2006.