Coinciding with the launch of its 11th cycle for 2016/2017 cycle, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award will accept nominations, in 5 different languages; English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German; for its classification "Arab Culture in Other Languages".

Formerly in the category, the Award restricted nominations to operate in a total of three languages, with English language being constant while the other two change with every cycle.

Talking about this decision, Dr Ali Bin Tamim said: "During our numerous interactions with leading cultural professional institutions throughout Europe, we understood the significant amount of production of works that falls within the classification resolving Arabic Culture from a foreign viewpoint. We opted to consist of those five languages as a standard for every session which we think will offer a chance for a larger swimming pool of academic contributions to take part towards winning."

Discussing the challenges of enhancing the number of languages, Bin Tamim included; "It is inescapable that adding new languages to the elections will enhance the workload handled by the scientific committee throughout the selection procedure, both in regards to amount of works and the range of languages to be examined. Still, we think it is worth the challenge as it represents a constructive step towards broadening the circle of option and quality of works selected in each cycle."

When it comes to the Sheikh Zayed Book Award's plans for the next phase, Mr. Saeed Hamdan, the Award's Manager, said: "We have numerous involvements lined up for in 2012, both at flagship worldwide book fairs, in addition to key cultural workshops around the world. Our ultimate objective stays to open new channels of communication with global cultural organizations and construct our relations to developing for strategic collaborations that assists us promote Arabic culture to an ever growing audience base."

It is notable to point out that the call for nominations for the eleventh award cycle is on-going up until October 1st of this year. Applicants can go to the award's website (www.zayedawrd.ae) for full information on how to participate