Literature and Arts from the Center of the World
180,000 electronic music aficionados attended the SOUNDSTORM festival in Riyadh this month, but as columnist Melissa Chemam writes, "it is impossible not to see these events as a part of the country’s soft power and policy to whitewash its terrible human rights record."
Omar Foda draws on family lore and field work to weave together a satirical tale of ego and power in 1920s Egypt.
Racism props up its ugly head from every quarter, but Tariq Mehmood refuses to be deterred.
Our columnist compares Arab/Muslim and Jewish humor and finds more in common than one might expect.
British Iranian actor, comedian and podcast host Omid Djalili opens up about comedy, racism and his beauty secrets in this informal interview with TMR's editor.
Writer, translator and artist Nouha Hamad tells three tales passed down as family legend connecting the 19th and 20th centuries.
Young Lebanese comic writer-illustrator duo Raja Abu Kasm and Rahil Mohsin convey what they think of corruption and their disintegrating country.
Translators Nadiyah Abdullatif and Anam Zafar bring us Lena Merhej's classic graphic novel on Merhej’s mother’s journey from West to East, and how as a German, she adapted to life in Lebanon.
Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi follows her novels "Fra Keeler" and "Call Me Zebra" with a story set in Andalucia.
The powerhouse United Arab Emirates has just fêted 50 years as a country, and 10-year resident Deborah Williams takes stock.
Selling off your beloved book collection to pay the rent hurts, but it beats starving or being out on the street.
"What a British person imagined Syria or the Middle East to be ... was more important than what I or people like me thought. We were subjective, but their opinions were objective."
Jenine Abboushi inaugurates a new monthly column with a story about a prominent family that lost everything in Palestine.
Rana Asfour reviews a new memoir about the legendary Dajani family, charged by a Turkish sultan with watching over King David's Tomb in Jerusalem, but exiled in 1948.
British-Syrian novelist Rana Haddad compares her experience growing up in Syria with the way people beyond Syria's borders see her country.