Malu Halasa

Malu Halasa, Literary Editor at The Markaz Review, is a London-based writer, journalist, and editor with a focus on Palestine, Iran, and Syria. She is the curator of Art of the Palestinian Poster at the P21 Gallery, as part the Shubbak: A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture Festival, from 23 May to 14 June 2025. Her latest book is the coedited anthology Sumūd: A New Palestinian Reader, with Jordan Elgrably (7 Stories Press, 2025), described as “a love letter, a prayer for survival, and a poem of resistance” (Nan Goldin). In 2023, Halasa edited the anthology, Woman Life Freedom: Voices and Art From the Women’s Protests in Iran (Saqi Books, 2023): “Through art and stories, [women] reveal the truth” (Reading Lolita in Tehran’s Azar Nafisi). Previous coedited anthologies include: Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline (2014), with Zaher Omareen and Nawara Mahfoud; The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design (2008), with Rana Salam; Kaveh Golestan: Recording the Truth in Iran (2005), with Hengameh Golestan, and the short series: Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations (2009), with Maziar Bahari; and Transit Beirut: New Writing and Images (2004), with Rosanne Khalaf. As a journalist, Halasa has written for The Guardian, FT and TLS. She was managing editor of the books imprint, Prince Claus Fund Library, in Amsterdam; a founding editor of Tank Magazine, in London, and Editor at Large for Portal 9, in Beirut. Her debut novel, Mother of All Pigs was reviewed by the New York Times as “a microcosmic portrait of … a patriarchal order in slow-motion decline.” Her writing, exhibitions, and lectures chart a changing Middle East. Find her under a photograph of a bird thong in the making from a Damascene lingerie atelier, on Instagram @Malu Halasa.