In recognition of their efforts in raising awareness of the Arab culture around the world, UNESCO is to honor Lebanese author, Elias Khoury, and Brazilian publisher, João Baptista de Medeiros Vargens, at a ceremony on February 27 at its headquarters in Paris, France.
In a press release, UNESCO said its Director-General, Irina Bokova, would honor the two with the 2011 UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture.
Elias Khoury, born in Beirut in 1948, is a novelist, playwright, critic and academic. He is the author of a dozen novels, including 'The Little Mountain, White Masks and Gate of the Sun'. His books have been translated into more than 10 languages, including Hebrew. As Editor-in-Chief of the literary supplement of the An Nahar newspaper between 1992 and 2009, he played a pivotal role in the promotion of Arab culture.
The Brazilian, João Baptista de Medeiros Vargens, born in Río de Janeiro in 1952, is a publisher, writer, translator, lexicographer and professor of Arab language and culture.
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 have contributed, through artistic, intellectual or promotional work, towards the development and dissemination of Arab culture in the world.
Each laureate will receive US$30,000.
The 10th anniversary of the Prize will be celebrated this year with a thematic debate about Art and culture, instruments of Peace. The programme includes two roundtable debates, one about perspectives on new forms of artistic expression by young Arabs and the other on Arab heritage and cultural Diversity.
The ceremony will feature a concert of classical Arab music by Lena Chamamyan, who is the Syrian-Armenian laureate of the 2006 Radio Monte-Carlo Moyen Orient music prize.
