The market offers three entry points: prize-winning titles with proven regional track records; digitally-native authors building audiences through platforms like the Almaqah literary club; and exile writers bridging Arabic and European markets.

Yemen’s decade-long conflict has devastated its publishing infrastructure, yet paradoxically catalysed a literary renaissance. With the Sanaa International Book Fair suspended since 2016 and distribution networks paralysed, Yemeni writers have pivoted to digital platforms and international partnerships.

The Narrative Turn

A decisive shift from poetry to prose has transformed Yemeni letters. Research by Dr Ibrahim Abu Talib reveals 373 novels published between 2010–2022 – the entire pre-2010 output.

This reflects both the form’s suitability for articulating wartime fragmentation and the collapse of poetry’s traditional infrastructure: cultural magazines, state patronage, and live performance venues.

The novel now dominates as “a tool to capture fragmentation rather than celebrate absolutes.”

2025’s Award Landscape

Despite negligible institutional support, Yemeni writers secured major regional recognition last year.

Nadia Yahya Hussein Al Kawkabani captured the Naguib Mahfouz Award for Arabic Fiction for Not (This is not the Story of Abdo Saeed), while Hamid Al Ruqaimi’s Memory Blindness won the Katara Prize for Arabic Fiction – an award specifically designed to fund translation.

Locally, the Hazawi Narrative Award amplified emerging voices including Ahlam Al Maqaleh’s The Silicon Prophecy.

The Exile Publishing Model

The diaspora has become Yemen’s de facto publishing engine. Paris-based Hamid Oqabi exemplifies this: in 2025 alone he self-published 44 books (48 works) spanning fiction, criticism, and theatre, working 15-hour days without institutional backing.

His model – direct partnerships with German, Egyptian, and Lebanese houses, plus collaborative translations with figures like Hatem Al Shamma – demonstrates how exiled writers bypass broken domestic markets.

Oqabi’s output includes bilingual texts and unproduced screenplays, with translations into English, French, German, and Italian already secured.

The View From The Beach

The market offers three entry points: prize-winning titles with proven regional track records; digitally-native authors building audiences through platforms like the Almaqah literary club; and exile writers bridging Arabic and European markets.

Censorship in Houthi-controlled areas means manuscripts must be vetted carefully, but translation rights for award-winners represent low-risk acquisitions. The Romooz Foundation’s 2019 call drew 400 applicant – evidence of deep latent talent.

Yemeni literature has become what critic Alwan Al Jilani terms “a living testament to patience” – and a viable, if complex, acquisition frontier.

This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.