Three Poems from <em>Roma Roam</em>, by Nathalie Handal

Weekly

Three stories published every Friday

Epiphanies: There’s Not Enough Body in the Text

A translator reflects upon cultural parallels and the many dimensions of an anthology written by and about Jordanian women.

29 MAY 2026 • By Addie Leak

Washing Off the Rosewater Tint

The Library of Arabic Literature was forced to shutter, ending a vital injection of Arabic into the bloodstream of translated literature.

29 MAY 2026 • By Chip Rossetti

When Reckoning Comes to Israel…

In her latest column, Amal Ghandour keeps a ledger of Israeli atrocities, and ponders a possible moral reckoning.

29 MAY 2026 • By Amal Ghandour

From New York to Abu Dhabi: Taking Leave

A writer's journeys, spiritual and physical, lead to a winding exploration of how to live beyond religious strictures or cultural boundaries.

22 MAY 2026 • By Sheana Ochoa

The Hollow Half Maps the Distance Between Body and Home

A prize-winning memoir brings alive three generations of diasporic Palestinians, from Gaza to New York City and back.

22 MAY 2026 • By N.S. Ahmed

A Fanonian reading of Mohammed Hanif’s Rebel English Academy

A dark political satire draws heavily on Fanon's writing but shifts the focus from abstract revolution to lived struggle.

22 MAY 2026 • By Farah Ahamed

Fiction

“Sara”—a short story

A Palestinian writer dissects the exquisite loneliness of losing one's mother tongue.

6 MARCH 2026 • By Majd Aburrub

“Words That Don’t Sink”—a short story

A simple debate over a spoon opens a space in which a group of Syrian migrants reclaim an identity on the brink of erasure.

6 MARCH 2026 • By Zeinab Ghassan Khaddour

Essays

The Souls of War Folk

The civilizational supremacy of the West is under threat, insisted U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a speech in Munich.

3 APRIL 2026 • By Ayça Çubukçu

“Iran After the Fire”—a Speculative Ethnography

A writer imagines Iran one year in the future, after the bombs have stopped falling, and the resulting political and social landscape.

3 APRIL 2026 • By Shahram Khosravi

Latest Essays & Fiction

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Join the community

Three new pieces of SWANA literature, criticism and art every Friday-direct.

    Scroll to Top