Mohammad Hafez Ragab: Upsetting the Guards of Cairo
Maha Al Aswad sheds light on Egyptian writer Mohammad Hafez Ragab, a literary figure of the 1960s whose works have been vastly overlooked.
Centerpiece
Dare Not Speak—a One-Act Play
A stage director declines producing a play about a child tragically murdered during a genocide, fearing she may appear biased.
Memory Archive: Between Remembering and Forgetting
Mai Al-Nakib explores memory, forgetting, and writing through the lenses of Woolf, Proust, and a Wim Wenders film.
Al-Thakla—Arabic as the Original Mourner
Abdelrahman ElGendy asks, how do you hold your grief in a language that's been its main perpetrator?
Lithium Dreams, Crisis of the Anthropocene
Artist and writer Francisco Letelier ponders the earth and the future of his native Chile as it debates lithium mining.
Immigrants in Houston: Fiction From Anis Shivani’s Patel Mart
Novelist Anis Shivani has lived in Houston for more than a decade and sets his upcoming novel amongst its immigrant community.
Broken Home: Britain in the Time of Migration
Malu Halasa tells the story of refugees seeking asylum in Britain who brave the dangerous waters of the English Channel.
Iraqi Diaspora Playwrights Hassan Abdulrazzak & Jasmine Naziha Jones: Use Your Anger as Fuel
Sparks fly when two UK-based Iraqi diaspora playwrights discuss how the art of theatre addresses Iraqi pain with both comedy and drama.
Bedazzled: Iran’s Rebel Feminists at London’s Curve Gallery
Malu Halasa tours the exuberant exhibition from artist Soheila Sokhanvari that celebrates strong Iranian women.
“Anarkali, or Six Early Deaths in Lahore”—fiction by Farah Ahamed
Farah Ahamed finds in the unsung working class Anarkali a heroine for the ages.
“What Are You Doing in Berlin?”—a short story by Ahmed Awny
Egyptian writer Ahmed Awny divigates between fiction and reality in this decentering short story.
Big Laleh, Little Laleh—memoir by Shokouh Moghimi
Who knows what drives anyone mad? For a sister who loves her big sister and emulates her, the mystery will perhaps never be resolved.
“Asha and Haaji”—a story by Hanif Kureishi
The author of the story collection "Love in a Blue Time" weaves a dystopian tale of migrants, love and literature.
Traveling in Contentious Spaces — Saudi Arabia
When friends in Abu Dhabi asked Deborah Williams how she could support MBS by going to “his” festival, she didn’t have an answer, only another question: how do we draw the lines around where we will or won’t go?
Climate Disasters Hasten the Advent of a World Refugee Crisis
Novelist Omar El Akkad ("What Strange Paradise", "American War") warns that wildfires and other climate disasters are creating the conditions for a global refugee crisis the world is not prepared for.