No thanks

Al Akhbar Al Adab is reporting that Baha' Taher, the winner of the recently established Arabic Booker Prize for his novel واحة الغروب  ("Sunset Oasis"), has declined to be among the candidates for the annual Mubarak Literature Prize, an official literary prize that comes with some serious cash. I think this may the same prize that novelist Sonallah Ibrahim famously rejected in 2003, with a dramatic speech from the podium.