AUC Press' A Stranger In Baghdad Wins 2024 Sharjah International Fiction Award
The American University in Cairo Press announces that A Stranger in Baghdad by Elizabeth Loudon has won the 2024 International Fiction Book Award at the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF). The award ceremony was held on November 6, 2024. Upon receiving the award, Loudon said, “I was absolutely delighted to learn that A Stranger in Baghdad has won the 2024 Sharjah International Book Fair award for best international novel. The characters in this novel mean so much to me. I’m grateful to the judges for helping to share this story of Baghdad as it used to be before the recent invasions and wars, and of the complicated—and often troubled—relationship between Britain and Iraq.”
Elizabeth Loudon is a London-based writer, teacher, and former charity development consultant. She holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MA in English from Cambridge University. Loudon has taught at Smith, Amherst, and Williams Colleges, and her work has been published in several prominent literary journals, including The Denver Quarterly, INTRO, North American Review, and Gettysburg Review. A Stranger in Baghdad is her fiction debut and was longlisted for the Bridport Novel Award and winner of the Stroud Book Festival Fiction Competition.
AUC Press Executive Director, Thomas Willshire, commented: “We are thrilled that our literature imprint, Hoopoe, has another prize-winning title. Elizabeth Loudon’s A Stranger in Baghdad tells a compelling story from the Middle East, and particularly from the heart of Iraq, perfectly aligning with Hoopoe’s mission to publish significant narratives and cross-border voices while showcasing distinguished literary works. The novel has been warmly embraced by readers and book clubs, reflecting a strong interest in stories from the Middle East.”
AUC Press Senior Acquisitions Editor Nadine El-Hadi also remarked, “A Stranger in Baghdad exemplifies our mission as a publisher to foster literary excellence and to champion diverse voices and stories from and about the Middle East. This award is a testament to our collective effort to bring compelling narratives to the global stage. Elizabeth Loudon’s sweeping historical novel conjures up mid-twentieth century Iraq in vivid, eloquent prose. An intergenerational and cross-cultural saga, filled with mystery and intrigue, we are thrilled that this stunning debut has been recognized by this award.”
AUC Press, the leading English-language publisher in the Middle East, publishes A Stranger in Baghdad under its fiction imprint, Hoopoe, launched in 2016 to bring Middle Eastern literary works to a global audience. Hoopoe has published many award-winning novels, including Khaled Khalifeh’s No Knives in the Kitchens of this City (translated by Leri Price), Latifa Al-Zayyat’s Open Door (translated by Marilyn Booth), Ibrahim Al-Koni’s Gold Dust (translated by Elliott Colla) and most recently, Radwa Ashour’s Granada: The Complete Trilogy (translated by Kay Heikkinen).
More information can be found at aucpress.com/hoopoe