Essays

The Angels of Desire

The Angels of Desire

Youssef Rakha meditates on dreams and desire, and why he might just be ready to die for a...

15 MARCH 2022 • By Youssef Rakha
Carlo in Belgrade (in which a father loves a son)

Carlo in Belgrade (in which a father loves a son)

A father's love for one of his sons is almost ineffable, in Hanif Kureishi's journal intime and travel...

15 MARCH 2022 • By Hanif Kureishi
“Gluttony” from Abbas Beydoun’s “Frankenstein’s Mirrors”

“Gluttony” from Abbas Beydoun’s “Frankenstein’s Mirrors”

Lebanese poet-novelist Abbas Baydoun reflects in an autobiographical mode on the melancholy of language and existence, while contemplating...

15 MARCH 2022 • By Abbas Baydoun
Fiction: “Skin Calluses” by Khalil Younes

Fiction: “Skin Calluses” by Khalil Younes

Syrian artist and writer Khalil Younes recalls the strained sexuality of Martyrs Square in Damascus.

15 MARCH 2022 • By Khalil Younes
Reza Abdoh: L.A.’s Theatre Visionary

Reza Abdoh: L.A.’s Theatre Visionary

Playwright and theatre director Reza Abdoh left his mark on Los Angeles and national theatre culture, as actor-writer...

15 FEBRUARY 2022 • By Juliana Francis Kelly
“Where Are You From?” Identity and the Spirit of Ethno-Futurism

“Where Are You From?” Identity and the Spirit of Ethno-Futurism

Writer and film executive Bavand Karim meditates on Iranian American identity and an alternative vision for self-realization in...

15 FEBRUARY 2022 • By Bavand Karim
The Alexandrian: Life and Death in L.A.

The Alexandrian: Life and Death in L.A.

An Egyptian American daughter recalls the enduring love her immigrant father harbored for Los Angeles and the American...

15 FEBRUARY 2022 • By Noreen Moustafa
(G)Hosting the Past: On Michael Rakowitz’s “Reapparitions”

(G)Hosting the Past: On Michael Rakowitz’s “Reapparitions”

Arie Akkermans reviews an Iraqi American's exhibitions as they attempt to recreate missing and destroyed artifacts taken from...

7 FEBRUARY 2022 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Mapping an Escape from Cairo’s Hyperreality through informal Instagram archives

Mapping an Escape from Cairo’s Hyperreality through informal Instagram archives

Even as the despotic rulers of post-revolution Egypt attempt to remake greater Cairo, hoping to gloss over the...

24 JANUARY 2022 • By Yahia Dabbous
Taming the Immigrant: Musings of a Writer in Exile

Taming the Immigrant: Musings of a Writer in Exile

Former prisoner and Egyptian writer in exile Ahmed Naji contemplates what it means to be a "brown writer"...

15 JANUARY 2022 • By Ahmed Naji
Children in Search of Refuge: a Photographic Essay

Children in Search of Refuge: a Photographic Essay

Photographer, documentarian and journalist Iason Athanasiadis shares images from more than 10 years of reporting from Afghanistan to...

15 JANUARY 2022 • By Iason Athanasiadis
Objective Brits, Subjective Syrians

Objective Brits, Subjective Syrians

"What a British person imagined Syria or the Middle East to be ... was more important than what...

6 DECEMBER 2021 • By Rana Haddad
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