Director General of the Cultural Village Foundation-Katara, Prof Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, along with other officials during the inauguration.
Doha: The Director General of the Cultural Village Foundation Katara, Prof Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, inaugurated on Thursday afternoon the memorial “Katara, the City of the Arabic Novel”, placed between Building 14 and Building 15.
The monument was designed and executed by the artist Fatima Al Shaibani, who said: The monument is a book carved with Arabic letters with the phrase: “Katara, the city of the Arabic novel”, the book is grounded on the base of the monument, with a hand holding a rope up to the depth of the book, in a hint of creative Qatari arms diving into the deep sea to acquire pearls.
The inauguration of the memorial comes to document the occasion of Katara being classified as a city for the Arabic novel by the Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), in October 2023, an event that came as a culmination of Katara’s continuous efforts to support the progress and development of the Arabic novel.
The monument also documents Katara’s initiative to dedicate an international week of novels, which was adopted by (UNESCO), to be during the period from 13 to 20 October of each year.
It is noteworthy that the “Katara Award for Arabic Novel “ has reached its eleventh edition in the current year 2025, which means that the award has entered the second decade of its life with an interactive score of approximately 17,000 participants, in addition to more than 250 editions of winning novels and works translated into English and French by 169 winners so far.
