Palestinian author Suad emiry awarded Italian culture prize

Suad Amiry has been awarded the 2014 Nonini Prize. She will receive the prize at a ceremony in Italy on  25 January. Suad Amiry has written a number of best-selling books including “Sharon and My Mother in Law” which has has been translated into twenty languages and has won another prestigious Italian literary Prize, Viareggio Versilia in 2004.Amiry is also the founder and the Director of RIWAQ Centre for Architectural Conservation that documents, protects and revives the architectural cultural heritage in Palestine.In a press release the jury motivated the award as follows:“A versatile woman of Palestinian culture who has always been fighting for peace. In search of her roots she has founded the Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah –which she has directed for years – born to protect and catalogue the extraordinary Palestinian artistic heritage and with it the traditions and memory of her people, necessary bases for the construction of a possible future. As a writer she used the foil with Sharon and my mother in law, a subtle and ironic book, and the sabre in Murad Murad, a devastating story where she denounces the denied rights and the oppressed dignity of human beings who live with the hope of a future of freedom”