Zaher Omareen

Zaher Omareen is a war correspondent, filmmaker, and writer whose creative work is inspired by the conflict zones in which he has worked: Afghanistan, Ukraine, Sudan, and Iraq. He often explores the intersection of documentary and fiction, and his writing has been featured on BBC Radio 4, and in the anthologies Banthology: Stories from Unwanted Nations (Comma Press and Deep Vellum, 2018) and the bilingual Danish-English collection Eksil (Screaming Books, 2019), as well as in the journals Words Without Borders, Massachusetts Review, The Common, M-Dash and Trafika Europe. He coedited the seminal Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline (Saqi Books/Dar Saqi, 2014) and is contributing editor of The Book of Damascus: A City in Short Fiction (Reading the City), forthcoming from Comma Press in June next year.

Rana Asfour is the Managing Editor at The Markaz Review, as well as a freelance writer, book critic and translator. Her work has appeared in such publications as Madame Magazine, The Guardian UK and The National/UAE. She chairs TMR’s English-language Book Club, which meets online the last Sunday of every month. She tweets @bookfabulous.