U.S. Book Tour: “Stories from the Center of the World” with editor Jordan Elgrably and contributing writers

RSVP form below.

🗓️ WHAT: Book launch of new Middle East fiction anthology 

🗣️ WHO: Editor Jordan Elgrably and various writers read from Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction 

📍 WHERE: San Francisco, Berkeley, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Washington DC, New York City. Each city has its own event link:

• MAY 9 (In-person & online) San Francisco, City Lights, with Sarah AlKahly-Mills, 7 pm: https://citylights.com/events/jordan-elgrably/
• MAY 10 (In-person) Berkeley, Books Inc with Sarah AlKahly-Mills, 6 pm: https://www.booksinc.net/event/jordan-elgrably-books-inc-berkeley
• MAY 11 (In-person) Sacramento, Capital Books, 5 pm: https://capitalbooksonk.com/jordan-elgrably
• MAY 16 (In-person) Los Angeles, Beyond Baroque with Reza Sixo Safai, 8 pm: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-launch-stories-from-the-center-of-the-world-new-middle east-fiction-tickets-880484200947?aff=oddtdtcreator 
• MAY 17 (In-person) Las Vegas with Ahmed Naji, The Writers Block, 7 pm: https://www.thewritersblock.org/events/upcoming-events
• MAY 20 (In-person) Chicago at Northwestern University Sahar Mustafah, 4 pm: https://planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/615352 & https://www.facebook.com/events/1656522558491274/ 
• MAY 21 (In-person & online) Washington DC, Busboys and Poets, with Natasha Tynes, 6 pm: https://www.busboysandpoets.com/events/th-evt-38480538/
• MAY 22 (In-person) NYC at the NYPL Tompkins Square, 6 pm with Omar El Akkad: https://arteeast.org/news-events/stories-from-the-center-of-the-world-readings-from-jordan-elgrably-and-omar-el-akkad/

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Donations are welcome to support The Markaz Review.

Short stories from 25 emerging and established writers of Middle Eastern and North  African origins, a unique collection of voices and viewpoints that illuminate life in the  global Arab/Muslim world.

“Provocative and subtle, nuanced and surprising . . . these stories demonstrate how this  complicated and rich region might best be approached— through the power of literature…” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Committed  

Stories from the Center of the World gathers new writing from the greater Middle East or SWANA — a vast region that stretches from Southwest Asia,  through the Middle East and Turkey, and across Northern Africa. The 25 authors included  here come from a wide range of cultures and countries, including Palestine, Syria,  Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and Morocco, to name a few. 

In “Asha and Haaji,” Hanif Kureishi takes up the cause of outsiders who become  uprooted when war or disaster strikes and they flee for safe haven. In Nektaria Anastasiadou’s  “The Location of the Soul According to Benyamin Alhadeff,” two students in Istanbul from  different classes—and religions that have often been at odds with one another—believe they  can overcome all obstacles. MK Harb’s story, “Counter Strike,” is about queer love among  Beiruti adolescents, and Salar Abdoh’s “The Long Walk of the Martyrs” invites us into the  world of former militants, fighters who fought ISIS or Daesh in Iraq and Syria, and are having  a hard time readjusting to civilian life. In “Eleazar,” Karim Kattan tells an unexpected  Palestinian story in which the usual antagonists—Israeli occupation forces—are mostly  absent, while another malevolent force seems to overtake an unsuspecting family. Omar  El Akkad’s “The Icarist” is a coming-of-age story about the underworld in which illegal immigrants are forced to live, and what happens when one dares to break away.  

JORDAN ELGRABLY is a Franco-American and Moroccan writer and translator, whose  stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous     anthologies and reviews,  including Apulée, Salmagundi, and The Paris Review. He is the editor of Stories from the  Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction (City Lights 2024) and co-editor with Malu  Halasa of Sumūd: a New Palestinian Reader (Seven Stories Press 2024). Elgrably founded  and edits The Markaz Review.