TMR 50
RETURNING HOME
In the 50th issue of The Markaz Review, diverse writers explore the return home in creative nonfiction, fiction excerpts and prose poems.
- TMR 50
- Editorial
For Our 50th Issue, Writers Reflect on Going Home
In the 50th issue of The Markaz Review, diverse writers explore the return home in creative nonfiction, fiction excerpts and prose poems.
- TMR 50
- CENTERPIECE
A Kashmiri in Cashmere
After going to Cashmere in Washington state last summer, Nafeesa Syeed wrote the following essay on colonization, displacement, and belonging.
2 May 2025 • By Nafeesa Syeed- TMR 50
- Featured Artist
Going Home to South Lebanon: Abdel Hamid Baalbaki
The Sursock Museum in Beirut presents "Ode to the South," a tribute exhibition to the late Abdel Hamid Baalbaki, 1940-2013.
2 May 2025 • By Karina El HelouMORE FROM THIS ISSUE
Leaving Abdoh, Finding Chamran
Salar Abdoh reflects on returning to Iran, burdened by injustice and a desire to reconnect with a culture that has normalized disinformation.
2 MAY 2025 • BY SALAR ABDOH
Home is Elsewhere: On the Fictions of Return
Feeling that her childhood home differed from her birthplace, writer Mai Al-Nakib perceives home as more imaginary than real.
2 MAY 2025 • BY MAI AL-NAKIB
Exile and Hope: Sudanese creatives and the question of home
Sudanese artists in exile are keeping their identity and heritage alive while they await the chance to return home.
2 MAY 2025 • BY ATI METWALY
A Letter To My Cruel Lover: Tripoli
My Tripoli breathes gunpowder, // … the city where mosques are bombed and streets get emptied. // … How can my Lebanon be their Lebanon?
2 MAY 2025 • BY LARA KASSEM
Arabic Jazz and Yazz Ahmed: A Music Between Homelands
Arabic jazz challenges stereotypes amid rising xenophobia in the West and colonial violence in the Arab world.
2 MAY 2025 • BY GABRIEL POLLEY
Looking for a Job, Living and Dying in Iran: The Logistics of Going Back
Not even escalating tensions between Israel and Iran could stop one wayward Iranian from returning home to see his father one last time.
2 MAY 2025 • BY RAHA NIK-ANDISH
The anger and sadness I brought back from Damascus. And the urge to shave my head
Batoul Ahmad, during a ten-year absence from Damascus, reconstructs her sense of home through memory and self-discovery in Australia.
2 MAY 2025 • BY BATOUL AHMAD
Strangers at Home: Young Palestinians in Israel
Young Palestinian citizens of Israel navigate life facing a unique position as both insiders and outsiders.
2 MAY 2025 • BY SOPHIA DIDINOVA
“Return to Salé,” an excerpt from Le Bastion des Larmes
Returning to Salé, his hometown in Morocco, a writer and educator is haunted by the voice of a gay lover, who insists on being remembered.
2 MAY 2025 • BY ABDELLAH TAïA
“Return to Ramallah,” an excerpt from Too Soon by Betty Shamieh
Shamieh's novel "Too Soon" invites the audience to reflect on their relationships with home and the multifaceted nature of belonging.
2 MAY 2025 • BY BETTY SHAMIEH
Return to Iraq: Sama Alshaibi’s ‘طرس’
Sama Alshaibi’s new project focuses on the spatial, material, and technological fragments that narrate the story of a place and its people.
2 MAY 2025 • BY YASMINE AL AWA