Shaikh Zayed Book Award receives record number of nominations

Abu Dhabi: The Shaikh Zayed Book Award has received a record number of nominations to date for its fourth session of 2009/2010, an official said.

The Award has received a major 230 nominations that met the initial conditions, according to Rashed Al Oraimi, The Secretary General of the Award.

Al Oraimi elaborated that the nominations were distributed among all of the Award's nine categories. The category of "Best Contribution to the Development of the Country" came first with 26.3 per cent of the total nominations received to date, while the categories of 'Literature' and 'The Young Author' followed closely with 25.4 per cent and 22.5 per cent respectively.

The Award also received varying number of nominations in the rest of its categories, including Children's Literature, Translation, Literature, Fine Arts, Best Technology in the Field of Culture, Best Publishing and Distribution House, and Cultural Personality of the Year.

"We hope that the massive flow of nominations continue until the closing date - September 15- and we are definite that such contributions will heat up the race towards winning the Sheikh Zayed Book Awards 2010," Al Orami said in a statement.