The General Authority for the Katara Cultural Village announced the list of the top 9 works participating in the eleventh session of the Katara Prize for Arabic Novel in various categories including published novels, unpublished novels, unpublished youth novels, unpublished historical novels, published Qatari novels, and unpublished critical studies. The total includes 44 novels and 9 critical studies eligible to win the prize.

The shortlist for published novels includes novelists from 7 Arab countries, with Egypt and Palestine leading the list with two novels each, followed by Kuwait, Oman, Syria, Yemen, and Tunisia with one novel each.

For the unpublished novels category, novelists from 6 Arab countries are included, with Egypt leading with 3 novels, followed by Morocco with 2, and one novel each from Sudan, Tunisia, Iraq, and Palestine.

The unpublished youth novels category includes novelists from 5 Arab countries, with Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria each having two novels, and one from Syria.

The unpublished critical studies category includes critics from 3 Arab countries, with Morocco leading with 5 studies, Egypt with 3, and one from Jordan.

The unpublished historical novels category includes novelists from 6 Arab countries, with Egypt leading with 3 novels, Jordan with 2, and one novel each from Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, and Yemen.

For the Qatari novel category, 8 novels are participating, all eligible to win, with one winner to be selected.

The names of the novelists and titles of novels and critical studies in the shortlists were published alphabetically on the Katara Prize website.

The total number of submissions for the eleventh session of the Katara Prize for Arabic Novel in 2025 reached 1908 entries, including 923 unpublished novels, 548 published novels released in 2024, 238 unpublished youth novels, 97 unpublished critical studies, 9 published Qatari novels, and 93 unpublished historical novels.