“Time
of White Horses” Shortlisted for Prestigious Neustadt International Prize

Oklahoma, 16 Jun (ONA) — Palestinian
author Ibrahim Nasrallah’s acclaimed novel “Time of White Horses” has
been selected as a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for
Literature—often referred to as the “American Nobel”—marking the only
Arabic work among nine global contenders.

The winner of the biennial award, administered by
the University of Oklahoma’sWorld Literature Todaymagazine, will be
announced this October 2025 during a literary festival.

Nasrallah’s
novel, previously shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, traces
Palestine’s history from late Ottoman rule through the 1948 Nakba via a
fictional village that serves as both mirror and metaphor.

Blending
documentary precision with literary imagination, the work re-examines
collective memory through profound humanist lenses.

No Arab writer has claimed the Neustadt since
Algeria’s late novelist Assia Djebar in 1996. This year’s cohort includes:

Ukrainian novelist Yuri Andrukhovych

American authors Elif Batuman and Robert Olen
Butler

Sudanese-American poet Safia Elhillo

French writer Mathias Énard

Japanese author Yoko Tawada

Pulitzer-winning American novelist Jesmyn Ward

The
selection underscores the novel’s resonance as both historical testimony and
artistic achievement.

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Ends/Khalid