Algerian-French Author Kamel Daoud on the Defensive
Embattled Algerian-French author Kamel Daoud won France’s most prestigious literary prize for a story he is accused of stealing.
TMR Weekly
Contretemps, a Bold Film on Lebanon’s Crises
Filmmaker Ghassan Salhab presents an immersive study of Lebanese youth, the silent isolation of mortality, and resistance.
Editors’ 2025 Palestinian Lit List
May 15, 2025 is the 77th commemoration of the Nakba, the day in 1948 that Palestinians suffered their worst catastrophe up to that time.
A World in Crisis: Deep Vellum’s Best Literary Translations 2025
This anthology, while celebrating last year's best literary translations, aims to highlight writing from and about a world in crisis.
Poet Mosab Abu Toha Wins Pulitzer Prize for Essays on Gaza
Poet and essayist Mosab Abu Toha who grew up in Gaza under the bombs has won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
Djinns Unveils Silence in the Home
Djinns emerge in a fractured home in Istanbul, reflecting the intercultural and intergenerational tensions in Fatma Aydemir’s family saga.
The Pen and the Sword—Censorship Threatens Us All
Anna Badkhen argues that the moral bankruptcy of American intellectuals…will only kick us down the hole deeper, faster.
Germany’s Most Rightwing Parliament Since WWII—Liberals Panic, Immigrants Roll Their Eyes
Laila Abdalla, a young Egyptian journalist transplanted to Germany, sizes up the rightward drift of the country.
Hassan Blasim’s Sololand features Three Novellas on Iraq
Hassan Blasim’s work is not imitation. His is a voice forged in exile, and steeped in the paradoxes of displacement.
May World Picks from the Editors
Film and writers’ festivals, concerts, art, standup comedy, lectures, new books, art residencies, and writing workshops.
On Forgiveness and Path—an Exhibition in Damascus
In post-regime Syria, forgiveness is not resolution—it’s a quiet demand for justice in the language of art.
An Immigrant in America: The Palace of Forty Pillars
A story of a self-estranged gay adolescent navigating his identity as an Armenian in Iran and later as an immigrant in America.
With Brecht, Rabih Mroué & Lina Majdalanie Deconstruct Fascism
The new Lebanese performance, "Four Walls and a Roof," uses trial testimony, humor, and Eisler-Brecht songs to address the rise of the right.
Between Belief and Doubt: Ramzi Mallat’s Suspended Disbelief
"Suspended Disbelief" interrogates the tension between belief and doubt in the folklore and collective psyche of the Mediterranean region.
Dear Souseh: Existential Advice for Third World Problems
An advice column that tackles personal questions inflected by our greater social, cultural, political, and historical contexts.