Malu Halasa

Malu Halasais a writer and Literary Editor of The Markaz Review. She is editor of the anthology Woman Life Freedom: Voices and Art From the Women’s Protests in Iran (2023) and coeditor of Sumūd: A New Palestinian Reader (2025), with Jordan Elgrably. Her debut novel Mother of All Pigs (2017) was described by the New York Times as “a microcosmic portrait of… a patriarchal order in slow-motion decline.” Her co-authored books include: Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline (2014); The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design (2008), with Rana Salam; Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations (2009), with Maziar Bahari; and Transit Beirut: New Writing and Images (2004). As managing editor of the Prince Claus Fund Library, Amsterdam, she produced books on art and culture from the Global South. A founding editor of Tank Magazine, London, and Editor at Large for Portal 9, Beirut, she has written for the Guardian, Financial Times and TLS. Her writings, exhibitions, and lectures chart a changing Middle East. Find her on Instagram @Malu Halasa.