Skip to content

 

Literature and Arts from the Center of the World

  • LOGIN
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • TMR Weekly
  • TMR 50 • RETURNING HOME
  • Poetry Markaz
  • Bil Arabi
  • Events
  • Support
        • Home
        • Review
        • TMR Weekly
        • Events
        • Podcast
        • Book Club
        • Store
        • About
          • About
          • Masthead
          • International Board
          • Frequent Authors
          • Supporters & Partners
        • Contact
          • Submissions
          • Become a Member
          • Donate
          • Volunteer
        • Press Room
          • Press Kits
          • Releases & Media Stories
          • Books from TMR

Abdellah Taïa

Abdellah Taïa was born in 1973 in the public library of Rabat, Morocco, where his father was the janitor and where his family lived until he was two years old. He is the first Arab author to come out as gay. He writes in French and has published nine novels (many translated into English and other languages), including L’armée du salut (2006), Une mélancolie arabe (2008), Infidèles (2012), Un pays pour mourir (2015), Celui qui est digne d’être aimé (2017), La vie lente (2019) and Vivre à ta lumière (2022). His novel Le jour du Roi was awarded the French Prix de Flore in 2010. Salvation Army, his first movie as a director, is adapted from his eponymous novel. The film was selected for the Venice Film Festival 2013, TIFF 2013, New Directors 2014 and won many international prizes. His novel A Country for Dying, translated into English by Seven Stories Press, won the Pen America Literary Awards 2021. In the US, his novels are translated and published by Semiotext(e) among them Salvation Army, An Arab Melancholia and Another Morocco, and Seven Stories Press, including Infidels and A Country for Dying. 

Jordan Elgrably is an American, French and Moroccan writer and translator whose stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in many anthologies and reviews, including Apulée, Salmagundi, and the Paris Review. Editor-in-chief and founder of The Markaz Review, he is the cofounder and former director of the Levantine Cultural Center/The Markaz in Los Angeles (2001–2020). 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 2025). Based in Montpellier, France and California, he tweets at Blue Sky.

2 May, 2025 • Abdellah Taïa, Jordan Elgrably

“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.

Read More →

2 July, 2023 • Abdellah Taïa

“Nadira of Tlemcen”—fiction from Abdellah Taïa

Sometimes you have to escape everything you know in order to become yourself.

Read More →

15 October, 2022 • Abdellah Taïa

“Malika,” an excerpt from Abdellah Taïa’s Vivre à ta lumìere

In this excerpt from a chapter in his latest novel in French, Abdellah Taïa pays homage to his mother, his favorite heroine.

Read More →

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

The Markaz Review is a literary arts publication and cultural institution that curates content and programs on the greater Middle East and our communities in diaspora. The Markaz signifies “the center” in Arabic, as well as Persian, Turkish, Hebrew and Urdu.

The Markaz Review
1465 Tamarind Ave., #702,
Los Angeles CA 90028
USA

7 rue de Verdun,
34000 Montpellier
France

© 2025 The Markaz Review • TMR • All Rights Reserved

    • Home
    • TMR Weekly
    • TMR 33 • Stories From The Markaz
    • Poetry Markaz
    • Events
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Essays
    • Support TMR
    • About
    • Volunteer
    • Masthead
    • Mission & Vision
    • Submissions & Reviewing
    • Contact

Sign up for the Markaz Newsletter you'll get highlights from the latest issue as well as news & event updates

Explore

  • Art
  • Art & Photography
  • Beirut
  • Book Reviews
  • Columns
  • Cuisine
  • Editorial
  • Essays
  • Fiction
  • Film
  • Film Reviews
  • History
  • Interviews
  • Islam
  • Latest Reviews
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Memoir
  • Music
  • Music Reviews
  • My Favorite Things
  • Opinion
  • Philosophy
  • Poetry
  • Poetry Markaz
  • Profile
  • TMR 3 - Racism & Identity
  • Readers Respond
  • Theatre
  • Theatre Reviews
  • Translation
  • Video
  • What We're Into
  • Women
  • World Picks
Become a Member
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.YesNo