Dima Mikhayel Matta: “This Text Is a Very Lonely Document”
A bold excerpt from the new Saqi anthology, "This Arab is Queer," in which a non-binary person from Lebanon explores solitude and family.
Fiction
Lisa Teasley: “Death is Beautiful”
Should we be happy we're finite? Lisa Teasley weaves a tale merging art, transhumanists and artificial intelligence.
Bakhtiyar Ali: “The Prisoner and the Plague”
From one of the most prominent contemporary authors and poets from Iraqi Kurdistan comes an unforgettable tale of oppression, and freedom.
Selma Dabbagh: “Trash”
A short story of international love from the author of the Gaza novel "Out of It."
“Buenos Aires of Her Eyes”—a story by Alireza Iranmehr
One of contemporary Iran's best storytellers conjures a tale of octogenarian love in a Nabokovian mode.
“The Salamander”—fiction from Sarah AlKahly-Mills
In this magical tale set in Lebanon and on a mysterious Mediterranean island, people dream of escape while a biologist seeks an elusive salamander.
Karim Kattan: “The Gravedigger”
The trilingual Palestinian novelist and short story writer weaves an engaging tale of love, death and redemption.
Hawra Al-Nadawi: “Tuesday and the Green Movement”
Translator Alice Guthrie shares a preview of Al-Nadawi's exquisite 2017 novel "Qismet," a Kurdish story set in Iraq and Iran.
“Intellectuals”—fiction from Hisham Bustani
From the fabulous — some would say surreal — Jordanian storyteller who gave us "The Monotonous Chaos of Existence."
“The Suffering Mother of the Whole World”—a story by Amany Kamal Eldin
A wayward daughter leaves Boston to spend a summer back home in Cairo, where she observes the decline of her once prominent family.
Fiction: “A Day in the Life of a Married Man”
A tale of conjugal love from the first complete story collection in English by Moroccan writer and cult feminist Malika Moustadraf, translated by Alice Guthrie.
Flash Fiction: “A Wife’s Diary”
In this flash fiction translated from Arabic, a woman poet finds herself at first thwarted by her possessive husband, then overshadowed when he decides to compete with her.
Silver Stories from Artist Micaela Amateau Amato
Artist and writer Micaela Amateau Amato uses art and words to create unique ways of transmogrifying the world.
Fadi Zaghmout’s banned-in-Jordan “Laila”: a TMR Valentine
In this excerpt of the banned Jordanian novel "Laila," introduced by Rana Asfour and translated by Hajer Almosleh, readers get a sense of Fadi Zaghmout's prose and purpose.
Fiction from “Free Fall”: I fled the city as a murderer whose crime had just been uncovered
TMR presents an exclusive excerpt from Abeer Esber's fourth novel, translated here by Nouha Homad, about a Damascene woman on the run, hiding out in Dubai.