Professor Jaroslav Stetkevych and his wife Suzanne Stetkevych have been named as the winners of the 2019 Cultural Personality of the Year Award at the 13th edition of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.
"Through enlightening Western audiences about Arabic culture, the Stetkevyches have enriched the global perspectives of our people and traditions," said Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) and Deputy Chairman of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award Board of Trustees.
In bestowing the honor of Cultural Personality of the Year, Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, Secretary General of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, said: "The Stetkevyches have made a distinguished and unparalleled contribution to Arab culture and literature in the English language, and the positive impact their research has had on Arabic culture cannot be overstated.”
Jaroslav Stetkevych is Professor Emeritus of Arabic Literature at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago and a Research Associate in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, Washington DC. He received his PhD in Arabic Literature from Harvard University in 1962.
His seminal works include 'The Zephyrs of Najd: The Poetics of Nostalgia in The Classical Arabic Nasib', which details the development of the literary Arabic language, as well as focusing on poetry in Arabic music.
Stetkevych considers Arabic poetry to be lyrical in essence.
Professor Suzanne Stetkevych is Chair of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University in Washington DC. She is also the Ruth N. Halls Emeritus Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University, USA. She is the Executive Editor of Brill Studies in Middle East Literatures and sits on the board of the Journal of Arabic Literature.
Suzanne Stetkevych obtained a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1981, and is known for her important works on Arabic classical poetry from the pre-Islamic era to the neo-classical periods, which have been published in both English and Arabic. She has written several books, including 'Abu Tammam and the Poetics of the Abbasid Age'.
The winner of the Cultural Personality of the Year award receives a prize of AED1 million ($272,000), a gold medal bearing the emblem of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award and a certificate of appreciation.
