BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//The Markaz Review - ECPv6.15.18//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:The Markaz Review X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Markaz Review REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Helsinki BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0300 TZNAME:EEST DTSTART:20230326T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0300 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:EET DTSTART:20231029T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0300 TZNAME:EEST DTSTART:20240331T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0300 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:EET DTSTART:20241027T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0300 TZNAME:EEST DTSTART:20250330T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0300 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:EET DTSTART:20251026T010000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Denver BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20230312T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20231105T080000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20240310T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20241103T080000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20250309T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20251102T080000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Paris BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:20220327T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:20221030T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:20230326T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:20231029T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:20240331T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:20241027T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:20250330T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:20251026T010000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Paris BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:20220327T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:20221030T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:20230326T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:20231029T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:20240331T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:20241027T010000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20220313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20221106T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20230312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20231105T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20240310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20241103T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240929T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240929T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240823T092207Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240829T093957Z UID:10000057-1727636400-1727640000@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club on Stories from the Center of the World readings & conversation DESCRIPTION:The Markaz Book Club invites you to readings and conversation about Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction\, edited by Jordan Elgrably and published in May by City Lights in San Francisco. Participating are editors Jordan Elgrably and Malu Halasa\, along with writers Leila Aboulela\, Farah Ahamed and Tariq Mehmood\, who will read from their short stories\, and discuss the state of short fiction out of the region TMR calls “the center of the world\,” from Pakistan in the east to Morocco in the west.\n\n\nJoin us for this roundtable discussion on Sunday\, September 29th at 1pm EST/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET on Zoom.\n\n\nRSVP here\n\n_____________________________________________________________________________________________________\n\nAbout the speakers:\n\n\nLeila Aboulela is author of the story “Raise Your Head High.”Her most recent novel is River Spirit\, published by Saqi Books. Her short story collection Elsewhere\, Home\, won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year. Leila was born in Cairo\, grew up in Khartoum and moved in her mid-twenties to Scotland where she now lives.\n\n\n\nFarah Ahamed wrote the story “Anarkali\, or Six Early Deaths in Lahore.” Her writing has been published in Ploughshares\, White Review\, LA Review of Books\, Massachusetts Review\, World Literature Today and The Markaz Review\, among others. She lives in London.\n\n\nJordan Elgrably is the founder of The Markaz Review\, author of the story “The Afghan and the Persian\,” and editor of the anthology Stories from the Center of the World published by City Lights.\n\n\nMalu Halasa is literary editor at The Markaz review and the author of the short story “A Dog in the Woods” in the same anthology.\n\n\n\nTariq Mehmood is the writer of the story “The Settlement\,” as well as a novelist and filmmaker. Among his works are the novel Hand On The Sun\, on the experience of racism by young migrants to the UK\, and While There Is Light\, a novel backdropped by the case of the BRADFORD 12. He lives and teaches in Beirut.\n\n_____________________________________________________________________________________________________\n\nThis program is online and free to the public. Don’t miss what promises to be a rich conversation about short stories and TMR’s first fiction anthology. This roundtable is supported by grants from Hawthornden and Open Society Foundations. \n  \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-stories-from-the-center-of-the-world-with-readings-from-editor-jordan-elgrably-and-contributing-writers/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/9.29-September-TMR-Book-Club-.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240926T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240926T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240911T140344Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240923T085255Z UID:10000061-1727377200-1727380800@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:GATEKEEPERS: Arab Writers\, Editors & Publishers Confront Mainstream Opposition DESCRIPTION:RSVP \nThe Markaz Review presents GATEKEEPERS: Arab Writers\, Editors & Publishers Confront Mainstream Opposition\, a roundtable with Palestinian authors/publishers/editors Michel Moushabeck and Hannah Moushabeck\, and author/publisher/editor Ammiel Alcalay. Free speech and the freedom to publish inconvenient truths during the war on Gaza; what hoops and misconceptions do writers and publishers from the region face; and who gatekeepers in popular Western publishing are some of the topics for the panel\, which will be moderated by TMR editors Jordan Elgrably & Malu Halasa. \n___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the speakers: \n \nMichel Moushabeck is the founder of the independently owned Interlink Books (1987)\, which has an active list of over 1\,000 titles and has published more Arab authors than any other US publisher. He is also a writer\, editor\, and musician of Palestinian Arab descent. In April this year he received the Arab American of the Year Award from ACCESS in Detroit. Moushabeck lectures frequently on Arabic music and literature in translation. He plays music almost daily; is an avid hiker and mountain climber; and is a rather obsessive collector of jazz and world music\, world percussion instruments\, books\, old maps\, and contemporary art. \n  \nHannah Moushabeck is a second-generation Palestinian American author and book worker who was raised in a family of publishers and booksellers and learned the power of literature at a young age. Hannah has worked in publishing for over a decade at companies such as Chronicle Books\, The Quarto Group\, and Simon & Schuster. She now runs Interlink Publishing\, the only Palestinian-owned publisher in the United States\, alongside her family. Her debut picture book Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine (Chronicle Books) won The New England Book Award and The Arab American Book Award. She lives in Amherst\, Massachusetts on the homelands of the Pocumtuc and Nipmuc Nations. \n  \nAmmiel Alcalay is a poet\, novelist\, translator\, essayist\, critic\, and scholar. Among his more than 20 books are After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture; Memories of Our Future; a little history; and the forthcoming Follow the Person: Archival Encounters\, as well as CONTROLLED DEMOLITION: a work in four books. His co-translation of Palestinian poet Nasser Rabah’s Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece\, is due out in early 2025. He received an American Book Award in for his work as founder and General Editor of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative\, and is a Distinguished Professor at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center. \nRead his essay in our latest issue: My Life Among the Gatekeepers \n\nModerators \n \nJordan Elgrably is an American\, French and Moroccan writer and translator whose stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in many anthologies and reviews\, including Apulée\, Salmagundi\, and the Paris Review. Editor-in-chief and founder of The Markaz Review\, he is the cofounder and former director of the Levantine Cultural Center/The Markaz in Los Angeles (2001–2020). He is the editor of Stories From the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction (City Lights\, 2024)\, and co-editor with Malu Halasa of Sumūd: a New Palestinian Reader (Seven Stories\, 2024)\, Based in Montpellier\, France and California\, he tweets @JordanElgrably. \nRead the editorial in our latest issue: Why GATEKEEPERS? \nMalu Halasa\, literary editor at The Markaz Review\, is a London-based writer and editor. Her latest book as editor is Woman Life Freedom: Voices and Art From the Women’s Protests in Iran (Saqi 2023). Her six previous co-edited anthologies include Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline\, with coedited with Zaher Omareen & Nawara Mahfoud; The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design\, with Rana Salam; and the short series: Transit Beirut: New Writing and Images\, with Rosanne Khalaf\, and Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations\, with Maziar Bahari. She was managing editor of the Prince Claus Fund Library; a founding editor of Tank Magazine and Editor at Large for Portal 9. As a freelance journalist in London\, she has covered wide-ranging subjects\, from water as occupation in Israel/Palestine to Syrian comics during the present-day conflict. Her books\, exhibitions and lectures chart a changing Middle East. Malu Halasa’s 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.” She tweets at @halasamalu. \nRead her essay in our latest issue: Featured Artists—”Barred From Home” \n___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nRSVP URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/gatekeepers-arab-writers-editors-publishers-confront-mainstream-opposition/ LOCATION:Zoom\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/9.26-TMR-44-GATEKEEPERS-Roundtable-Wide-1.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240921T150000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240922T150000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240911T132523Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240912T084824Z UID:10000060-1726930800-1727017200@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:Rencontre Littéraires et Poétiques : Coline Houssais\, Karim Kattan et Rachida Belkacem DESCRIPTION:RSVP \nThe Markaz Review fait sa rentrée littéraire au Festival Arabesques. Venez découvrir nos deux évènements littéraires et poétiques au Domaine D’O à Montpellier. \n\nColine Houssais présentera son livre Paris en lettres arabes (Actes Sud 2024)\, qui jette des ponts entre la culture parisienne et divers écrivains arabes au fil du temps. Le samedi 21 septembre à 15h au Domaine d’O\, entrée gratuite.\n\nColine Houssais est spécialiste des cultures du monde arabe. Formée à l’Institut d’études arabes de Damas et au campus Moyen-Orient-Méditerranée de Sciences Po\, où elle enseigne aujourd’hui\, elle est également traductrice\, journaliste et chercheuse indépendante.  La conversation sera animée par Sarah Naili de The Markaz Review.  \n\n L’écrivain palestinien Karim Kattan et la poétesse franco-marocaine Rachida Belkacem seront réunis pour une conversation littéraire le dimanche 22 septembre 2024 à 15h au Domaine d’O\, entrée gratuite.\n\nKarim Kattan présentera son nouveau roman paru aux éditions Elyzad\, L’Éden à l’aube\, autour de l’histoire d’amour d’Isaac et Gabriel\, à Jérusalem\, où il est question de djinns et de checkpoints\, au cœur de la Palestine. \nKarim Kattan est un écrivain palestinien de Bethléem. Il est docteur en littérature comparée. Il écrit en anglais et en français. Ses textes — fictions\, essais\, et poèmes — sont à la convergence des littératures de l’imaginaire et des littératures expérimentales. \nRachida Belkacem présentera son dernier recueil de poésie\, L’Odyssée des possibles. \nAncienne chroniqueuse radio et membre de jurys de prix littéraires\, Rachida Belkacem est très impliquée dans la vie culturelle française et marocaine. En 2023\, elle publie un recueil de poésie intitulé Phronésis (Mindset Éditions)\, un ouvrage en prose sur la lumière\, la liberté et l’optimisme. Dans l’ouvrage collectif Maroc de quoi avons-nous peur\, sorti en 2020\, elle analyse la condition des femmes marocaines : « L’évolution de la condition féminine\, pour qu’elle s’inscrive dans les mœurs et les mentalités\, ne peut être que le fruit d’une action inclusive impliquant les hommes. »  \nLa conversation sera animée par Jordan Elgrably\, rédacteur en chef de The Markaz Review. \nPour en savoir plus : www.festivalarabesques.fr  URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/rencontre-litteraires-et-poetiques-coline-houssais-karim-kattan-et-rachida-belkacem/ LOCATION:Domaine D’O\, 178\, rue de la Carriérasse\, Montpellier\, 34090\, France ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/9.21-Rencontre-avec-Coline-Houssais.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240814T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240814T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240731T132216Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240801T085935Z UID:10000056-1723662000-1723665600@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:WRITING ACROSS BOUNDARIES: Queerness\, Multilingualism\, and Generational Clashes in Fiction DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nQueerness\, multilingualism\, and generational clashes are some of the themes for this roundtable conversation celebrating The Markaz Review’s summer double literary issue. MK Harb from Beirut\, Nektaria Anastasiadou from Istanbul\, and Qais Akbar Omar from Kabul join The Markaz’s literary editor Malu Halasa. They will discuss the art of fiction\, the universality of localism\, and the challenges facing writers from the Middle East and beyond in western-centric publishing. Learn the secrets and techniques behind writing a compelling short story. \nJoin us for this roundtable discussion on Wednesday\, August 14 at 1pm EST/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET. \nThis program is online and free to the public. Don’t miss what promises to be a rich conversation about writing and publishing fiction. This roundtable is supported by grants from Hawthornden and Open Society Foundations. \n_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the speakers: \nMalu Halasa is the Literary Editor of The Markaz Review. Her latest anthology\, Woman Life Freedom: Voices and Art From the Women’s Protests in Iran was shortlisted for the 2024 Bread and Roses Prize for Radical Publishing\, in the UK. She is co-editor\, with Jordan Elgrably of Sumūd: A New Palestinian Reader that will be published by Seven Stories Press in October. 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.” \nRead her editorial\, “Why Summer Fiction? For the Wonders & Miracles” in our double summer fiction issue \n  \nMK Harb is a writer from Beirut. He received his graduate degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University in 2018. Harb served as Editor-at-Large for Lebanon at Asymptote Journal (2020-2023)\, commissioning and writing pieces relating to Arab literature in translation. His fiction and nonfiction work has been published in The White Review\, BOMB Magazine\, The Times Literary Supplement\, Hyperallergic\, and Jadaliyya\, among others. \nRead “We Danced”—a story by MK Harb in TMR 43 SUMMER FICTION ’24 \n  \nNektaria Anastasiadou is the 2019 winner of the Zografeios Agon\, a Greek-language literary award founded in 19th-century Constantinople. Her debut novel\, A Recipe for Daphne\, was shortlisted for the 2022 Runciman Award\, longlisted for the 2022 Dublin Literary Award\, and a finalist with an Honorable Mention for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Book Award. Her second novel\, Στα Πόδια της Αιώνιας Άνοιξης/Beneath the Feet of Eternal Spring was written in Istanbul Greek\, and published by Papadopoulos in 2023. \nDive into her story\, “An Inherited Offense”—a Levantine story on the island of Leros in our summer fiction issue \n  \nQais Akbar Omar is the author of A Fort of Nine Towers that has been published in more than twenty languages\, and the co-author of A Night in the Emperor’s Garden. Omar was born in 1982 in Kabul\, Afghanistan\, and holds a BA in journalism from Kabul University\, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Boston University. He was a Scholars at Risk Fellow at Harvard University. Omar has written for the New York Times\, the Atlantic\, the Sunday Times\, and the Cairo Review of Global Affairs\, and published short stories in the Southern Review\, Guernica\, and elsewhere. \nDiscover his centerpiece story\, “The Social Media Kids”—a short story by Qais Akbar Omar in our latest issue  \n_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/writing-across-boundaries-queerness-multilingualism-and-generational-clashes-in-fiction/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Roundtable ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/8.14-TMR-43-SUMMER-FICTION-Roundtable-Discussion-Zoom-wide-1.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240801T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240801T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240720T113013Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240720T114749Z UID:10000055-1722538800-1722542400@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:FROM ARABIC to ENGLISH: The Challenges & Rewards of Literary Translation DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nEnglish has become the world’s lingua franca — and one of the largest languages for literary work from the Middle East and beyond. Fresh from publishing our double summer fiction issue\, The Markaz Review presents five seasoned translators who work to find the best English version of original writing in Arabic: Lina Mounzer\, Chip Rossetti\, Nada Faris\, Zia Ahmed & Rana Asfour. \nJoin us for this roundtable discussion moderated by Lina Mounzer on Thursday\, August 1st at 1pm EST/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET. \nThis program is online and free to the public. Don’t miss what promises to be a rich conversation on the art of translation\, with all its challenges and rewards. This roundtable is supported by grants from Hawthornden and Open Society Foundations. \n________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the speakers: \nLina Mounzer is a Lebanese writer and translator. She has been a regular contributor to the New York Times and her work has appeared in the Paris Review\, Freeman’s\, Washington Post\, and The Baffler\, as well as in the anthologies Tales of Two Planets (Penguin 2020)\, and Best American Essays 2022 (Harper Collins 2022). She is a senior editor at The Markaz Review. \nRead her translation of Tarek Abi Samra’s essay\, “Flaubert’s Poison Pen” from the Arabic in our latest issue. \n  \nChip Rossetti’s published translations include the novel Beirut\, Beirut by Sonallah Ibrahim; the short story collection Animals in Our Days by Mohamed Makhzangi; Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik; and No Windmills in Basra\, by Diaa Jubaili. His translations have also appeared in Asymptote\, The White Review\, Banipal\, and Words without Borders. He has a Ph.D. in modern Arabic literature from the University of Pennsylvania\, and has worked in book publishing for over 20 years. He is currently the Editorial Director for the Library of Arabic Literature series published by New York University Press. \nRead his translation of Diaa Jubaili’s flash fiction\, “The Doll with the Purple Scarf” in our latest issue. \n  \nNada Faris is a writer and literary translator. In 2018\, she received an Arab Woman Award from Harper’s Bazaar Arabia for her impact on creatives in Kuwait. She is an Honorary Fellow in Writing at Iowa University’s International Writing Program (IWP) Fall 2013; and an alumna of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) 2018: Empowering Youth through the Performing Arts. Faris holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry & Literary Translation) from Columbia University. She is the author of multiple books in different genres. Her shorter works have appeared in: The Norton Anthology for Hint Fiction\, Gulf Coast Journal\, Indianapolis Review\, Nimrod\, Tribes\, One Jacar\, The American Journal of Poetry\, and more. Lost in Mecca by Bothayna Al-Essa (DarArab\, 2024) is Faris’ first literary translation. \nRead her translation of Nora Nagi’s short story\, “Certainty” in our latest issue. \n  \nZia Ahmed is an American writer and translator from Virginia. He lived in Muscat\, Oman\, for three years. His work has appeared in The Washington Post\, Asymptote Journal\, Sard Adabi and Nizwa\, Oman’s premier literary magazine. A translation of his Arabic short story “La Takhif” [“Be Not Afraid”] will appear in an upcoming issue of the Denver Quarterly. \nRead his translation of Hamoud Saud’s short story\, “A Blind Window on Childhood” from the Arabic in our latest issue. \n  \nRana 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 the TMR English-language BookGroup\, which meets online the last Sunday of every month. She tweets @bookfabulous. \nRead her translation of an excerpt from Mohammad Alnaas’s novel “Altercation in Jahannam” in our latest issue. \n________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/from-arabic-to-english-the-challenges-rewards-of-literary-translation/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Roundtable ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/7.18-TMR-43-SUMMER-FICTION-Translation-Roundatble-Zoom-wide.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240728T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240728T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240709T094103Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240709T140606Z UID:10000054-1722193200-1722196800@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "The Oud Player of Cairo" with author Jasmin Attia DESCRIPTION:Join us for our July Book Club discussion of “The Oud Player of Cairo” with author Jasmin Attia on Sunday\, July 28th at 1pm EST/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET on Zoom. \nRSVP here \n_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nABOUT THE BOOK: \nVibrantly descriptive and evocative of the waning colonial world in Egypt during the mid-20th century\, this debut historical novel by Jasmin Attia is the compelling story of a young Egyptian woman\, Laila\, who defies the restrictive traditional roles set for women of that time\, and instead follows the path inspired by her musician father\, a much-beloved oud player\, to become a singer and performer In her own right. \nAfter extricating herself from an abusive marriage\, Laila struggles to maintain her independence as a singer in Cairo’s chic international nightclubs\, and embarks on an affair that puts her in grave danger\, forcing her to make a decision that will forever alter the course of her life. \nPublished by Schaffner Press\, 360 pages. \nABOUT THE AUTHOR: \nJasmin Attia is a 2021 graduate of the MFA program at Bennington College\, and 2022 winner of the Nicholas Schaffner Award for Music in Literature. She has attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference\, and served as a mentor for the Cream Literary Alliance in West Palm Beach. Her writing appears in AWP’s The Writer’s Chronicle\, Lit Hub\, Electric Lit\, the Jewish Book Council’s’ Paper Brigade\, and The Millions. \n_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-the-oud-player-of-cairo-by-jasmin-attia/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/July-2024-Book-Club-FB-1.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Denver:20240713T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Denver:20240713T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240626T093127Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240626T093353Z UID:10000053-1720897200-1720900800@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:Weaving a World: Arabic Poetry in Translation DESCRIPTION:The Markaz Review and Beyond Baroque are pleased to present “Weaving a World: Arabic Poetry in Translation.” Titled after the Sudanese poet Al-Saddiq Al -Raddi’s poem\, “Weaving a World\,” the evening of readings in The Wanda Coleman Theatre at Beyond Baroque in Venice\, CA features poets Zeina Hashem Beck\, Zêdan Xelef\, and Maya Salameh. This event is part of the Poetry Coalition’s slate of programs in the spring and summer that reflect the transformative impact poetry has on individual readers and communities across the nation\, and is made possible (in part) by the Academy of American Poets with support from the Mellon Foundation.\n\n\nThis event will take place in-person at Beyond Baroque (681 Venice Blvd.\, Venice\, CA 90291) and live on YouTube on Saturday\, July 13th at 7:00 pm PT.\n\nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/weaving-a-world-arabic-poetry-in-translation/ LOCATION:Beyond Baroque\, 681 Venice Blvd.\, Venice\, CA\, 90291\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/weaving-a-world-bb-tmr-13-july-event.jpeg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240630T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240630T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240612T120228Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240626T123522Z UID:10000051-1719774000-1719777600@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "On the Isle of Antioch" by Amin Maalouf DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nJoin us online on Sunday\, June 30th at 1 pm Eastern/19:00 CET for this month’s Book Club discussion of On the Isle of Antioch by Amin Maalouf\, translated by Natasha Lehrer. \n__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the book: \nIn this dystopian novel about total collapse by internationally renowned author Amin Maalouf\, a complete blackout hits a small island with only two solitary inhabitants\, who suddenly have to depend on each other. \nAlec\, a press artist with an impressive track record\, settles on a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean. He has little contact with his neighbor\, a solitary woman who wrote a cult book years ago\, before withdrawing from public life. That is\, until a gigantic power failure cuts them off from the rest of the world\, and all of a sudden they find themselves dependent on each other. The world appears to be on the brink of nuclear war and the collapse of civilization seems imminent. Just who are the mysterious friends of Empedocles\, the gang of otherworldly protectors who came swooping in to interfere with the US presidency and cure all illness? Should we trust them? On the Isle of Antioch is a suspenseful novel with mythological roots\, written in the dreamy language of the classics\, by internationally renowned scholar Amin Maalouf. \nPublished by World Editions. \nAbout the author: \nAMIN MAALOUF was born in Beirut and lived there until the Lebanese Civil War broke out in 1975. He settled in Paris in 1976 and published his first book\, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes\, in 1983. In 1993\, The Rock of Tanios\, his fifth novel\, won the Goncourt Prize\, the most prestigious literary award in France. Maalouf is a member of the Académie Française and in 2010 was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature for his entire oeuvre. In 2021 he was voted one of 12 International Writers by the Royal Society of Literature\, an initiative celebrating the power of literature to transcend borders and bring people together. He was awarded both the Terzani Prize and the Malaparte Prize for Adrift\, also published in English by World Editions. His work has been translated into 50 languages and his most recent bestselling novel available in English is The Disoriented. \nAbout the translator: \nNATASHA LEHRER is a prizewinning writer\, translator\, and editor. Her long-form journalism and book reviews have appeared in the Guardian\, the Observer\, the Times Literary Supplement\, the Nation\, Haaretz\, and Fantastic Man\, among others\, and she is literary editor of the Jewish Quarterly. She has contributed to several books\, including a chapter on France in Looking for an Enemy: 8 Essays on Antisemitism\, edited by Jo Glanville. The writers she has translated include Nathalie Léger\, Chantal Thomas\, Vanessa Springora\, Victor Segalen\, Robert Desnos\, and Georges Bataille. \n__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-the-isle-of-antioch-by-amin-maalouf/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/June-2024-Book-Club-FB-1.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Denver:20240630T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/Denver:20240630T183000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240515T145128Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240515T145128Z UID:10000049-1719766800-1719772200@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:The Muslim Musical Mosaic Project: Creating A New American Muslim Musical Tradition DESCRIPTION:The Markaz Review is proud to co-sponsor Muslims for Progressive Value’s event: “Creating a New American Muslim Tradition” as part of Phase I of their Muslim Musical Mosaic. \nThis event will take place at the Cats Crawl Theater in Los Angeles\, CA (660 North Heliotrope Drive\, Los Angeles\, CA 90004) on June 30\, 2024 from 5:00-6:30 pm PST. Featured speakers and performers include: Professor Mark Levine (University California-Irvine)\, Lu Fuki\, Alfred Madian\, Farah Mitha\, Tazeen Ayub\, Aiman Khan and Ani Zonneveld. \nTo learn more and register: https://mpvusa.networkforgood.com/events/71316-muslim-musical-mosaic-event URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/the-muslim-musical-mosaic-project-creating-a-new-american-muslim-musical-tradition/ LOCATION:Cats Crawl Theater\, 660 North Heliotrope Drive\, Los Angeles\, CA\, 90004\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Mosaic-Event-Banner.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240629T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240629T203000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240612T121258Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240612T121258Z UID:10000052-1719687600-1719693000@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:Literary Event: "Stories from the Center of the World" with editor Jordan Elgrably DESCRIPTION:TMR presents a literary event in English\, for the release of Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction published by City Lights\, with editor Jordan Elgrably on Saturday\, June 29th at 7pm at Gazette Café in Montpellier. \nRSVP here \n__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the book: \nThis book brings together the best short stories published in The Markaz Review literary magazine\, with contributions from 25 emerging and/or established writers of Middle Eastern and North African origin; a unique collection of voices and points of view that illuminate life in the modern Arab world. \nThe stories cover a number of styles and genres\, from literary fiction to science fiction\, epistolary to noir. \nContributors include Salar Abdoh\, Leila Aboulela\, Farah Ahamed\, Omar El Akkad\, Sarah AlKahly-Mills\, Nektaria Anastasiadou\, Amany Kamal Eldin\, Jordan Elgrably\, May Haddad\, Malu Halasa\, Mohamad Khalil (MK) Harb\, Alireza Iranmehr\, Karim Kattan\, Hanif Kureshi\, Sahar Mustafah\, Ahmed Naji\, Mai Al-Nakib and Natasha Tynes. \nAbout the editor: \nJordan Elgrably is a Moroccan-born Franco-American writer whose stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. He is the Editor-in-Chief and Founder of The Markaz Review in Montpellier. \n__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/literary-event-stories-from-the-center-of-the-world-with-editor-jordan-elgrably/ LOCATION:Gazette Café\, 6 Rue Levat\, Montpellier\, 34000\, France CATEGORIES:Author Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FB-29.6-Rencontre-TMR-a-Gazette-Cafe.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240620T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240620T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240612T115423Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240612T115423Z UID:10000050-1718910000-1718913600@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR 42 • THEATRE Roundtable Discussion DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nThis month\, TMR presents a lively and potentially contentious conversation on contemporary Arab and Arab American theatre from the viewpoint of its theatremakers in the post-Covid era. This discussion will be moderated by playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak (Iraq)\, and featuring artistic director/producer Georgina Van Welie (UK/Kuwait)\, Egyptian American playwright Yussef El Guindi (USA) and Syrian playwright Mudar Alhaggi. \nJoin us online on Thursday\, June 20th at 1pm EST/ 7pm CET/ 6pm UK. \nDiscover their work in our THEATRE issue: \n\nHassan Abdulrazzak’s centerpiece: Dare Not Speak—a One-Act Play\nYussef El Guindi’s play: As We Near the End (or What Adorno Said)\nGeorgina Van Welie’s essay: Arab Shakespeare?\nMudar Alhaggi’s play: The Return of Danton—a Play by Mudar Alhaggi & Collective Ma’louba\n\n__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the speakers: \nHassan Abdulrazzak is an award-winning writer of Iraqi origin\, born in Prague and living in London. His plays include The Special Relationship; And Here I Am; Love\, Bombs and Apples; The Prophet; and Baghdad Wedding (all published by Bloomsbury). Abdulrazzak has translated numerous Arabic plays and contributed to several anthologies including Iraq +100 (Comma Press). The script of his short film A Night of Gharam won the Unsolicited Scripts Short Film Grant 2022. \nBorn in Egypt\, raised in London and now based in Seattle\, Yussef El Guindi’s work frequently examines the collision of ethnicities\, cultures and politics that face Arab/ Middle Eastern Americans and Muslim Americans. His many productions include Hotter Than Egypt at Marin Theatre Company and ACT in Seattle; People of the Book at ACT; The Talented Ones at ART in Portland; and Threesome at Portland Center Stage\, ACT\, and at 59E59 (NY). Broadway Play Publishing Inc. published a collection of short pieces entitled In A Clear Concise Arabic Tongue. He is the recipient of several honors\, including the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award\, American Blues Theater’s Blue Ink Playwriting Award\, L.A. Weekly’s Excellence in Playwriting Award\, and the Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award. \nGeorgina Van Welie graduated from Cambridge University then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company\, where she directed three shows for their Fringe Festival before going on to found her own company Inigo Productions. Co-founder of Sabab Theatre from 2002 – 2013 she produced bilingual Arabic/English theatre productions in collaboration with prestigious performing-arts organisations that include: The Kennedy Center\, BAM New York\, Arts Emerson (USA); The Royal Shakespeare Company\, Riverside Studios\, Gate Theatre\, Shubbak Festival (UK); Le Comedie Francaise\, Bouffes du Nord (France)\, The Holland Festival\, Warsaw Festival\, Attiki Festival Greece; The Tokyo International Arts Festival\, Seoul Performing Arts Festival\, Singapore Arts Festival\, Sydney Festival; Dar al Athar Al Islamiyyah Kuwait\, Al Ain Festival\, Sharjah Biennale\, Cairo International Theatre Festival\, Le Tournesol Theatre Beirut. She is currently working on a new Shakespeare Trilogy. Georgina has also worked as story liner\, script editor and co-writer on a number of award-winning TV shows and films with Channel 4\, Pearson Television (UK) and most recently with Linked Productions Whose Country (dir. Siam Mohammed). \nMudar Alhaggi is a playwright\, dramaturg\, and cultural activist. He received a B.A in Dramatic Studies from The Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in 2005 and shortly afterwards co-established the Street Workshop for playwriting. From 2005-2011\, he designed interactive activities for children\, and trained trainers in interactive theatre methods. He participated in several writing workshops and residency programs in Europe and the Arab region. \nHe was artist in residency in “Delfina foundation \, London 2010” and in “Schlachthaus Theater Bern\, 2014.” In 2013\, Mudar moved from Damascus to Beirut\, where did many artistic projects\, he launched “KEIT KEIT KEIT” a series of writing and documentation workshops for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Then later in Europe ( Graz\, Zurich\, Dresden\, Berlin)\, he also was a dramaturge of ( above zero) performance\, produced by Koon theatre group\, and presented in Beirut\, Tunisa\, and Amsterdam. Also in 2014 Mudar directed (one thousand and one tents) performance\, produced by Ettijahat\, and presented in sunflower theatre in Beirut. In May-june Mudar was artist in residency in “Schlachthaus Theater Bern” where he wrote a daily blog for -Auawirleben theatre festival\, and started a collaporation with K.N.P.V teater group\, in producing (41 stunden) where was a drmaturg/ performer\, the show was premiered in 2016 in Kellertheatre wintertur. In 2014- 2015 Founder and artistic director (with Erik Altorfer) of Futures Stages\, a playwriting workshop for Syrian and Syrian-Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The project was supported by Ettijahat and prohelvitia. \nHis texts incude The Don Juan\, Wisal\, Bronze\, When Farah Cries\, 41 Hours\, Your Love is Fire\, Barsach\, Orura\, Just a Formality\, The Dead are Busy\, The Return of Danton. \n__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-42-theatre-roundtable-discussion/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/6.20-TMR-42-THEATRE-Roundtable-Zoom-wide.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240529T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240529T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240515T143343Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240521T161424Z UID:10000048-1717009200-1717012800@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses “Where the Wind Calls Home” with the author Samar Yazbek DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nJoin TMR’s Book Club on Wednesday\, May 29th at 1pm EST/ 7pm CET/ 6pm UK to discuss “Where the Wind Calls Home” with the author Samar Yazbek on Zoom. In this new novel by Syria’s most prominent writer of the National Book Award “Finalist Planet of Clay\,” a wounded nineteen-year-old soldier in the Syrian Army remembers his life lived in the traditional Alawite way. \nIn this new novel by Syria’s most prominent writer of the National Book Award Finalist Planet of Clay\, a wounded nineteen-year-old soldier in the Syrian Army remembers his life lived in the traditional Alawite way. \nAli\, a nineteen-year-old soldier in the Syrian army\, lies on the ground beneath a tree. He sees a body being lowered into a hole–is this his funeral? There was that sudden explosion\, wasn’t there … While trying to understand the extend of the damage\, Ali works his way closer to the tree. His ultimate desire is to fly up to one of its branches\, to safety. Through rich vignettes of Ali’s memories\, we uncover the hardships of his traditional Syrian Alawite village\, but also the richness and beauty of its cultural and religious heritage. Yazbek here explores the secrets of the Alawite faith and its relationship to nature and the elements in a tight poetic novel dense with life and hope and love. \nPublished by World Editions. Translated by Leri Price. \nRSVP here \n_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the author: \nSamar Yazbek is a Syrian writer and journalist. She was born in Jableh\, Syria\, near Latakia\, in 1970\, and studied Arabic literature at Latakia university.\n\nYazbek has been a prominent voice in support of human rights and more specifically women’s rights in Syria. In 2012\, she launched Women Now for Development\, an NGO based in France that aims at empowering Syrian women economically and socially and at educating children.\n\nIn 2010\, Yazbek was selected as one of the 39 most promising authors under the age of 40\, by Beirut39\, a contest organized by the Hay Festival. In 2011\, she took part in the popular uprising against the Assad regime\, and was forced to exile a few months later. In 2012\, she was chosen for the prestigious PEN/Pinter Prize “International writer of courage”\, in recognition of her book “In the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution”. She was also awarded the Swedish Tucholsky Prize\, and the Dutch Oxfam/PEN Prize\, in the following year. In 2016 Yazbek’s literary narrative “The Crossing” was awarded the prestigious French “Best Foreign Book” prize. Her novel\, “The blue pen”\, was in the third and final selection of the French Femina award\, and was shortlisted to the National Book Award\, New York under the title “Planet of Clay” in 2021.\nIn 2019\, Samar Yazbek was attributed the honorary citizenship by the City of Palermo. And in 2022\, Yazbek was chosen by the Royal Society of Literature as one of its 12 International W1riters\, along with Anne Carson\, Maryse Condé\, Yoko Ogawa and Juan Gabriel Vasquez\, among others\, thereby joining the 12 inaugural awardees of 2021\, including Annie Ernaux\, David Grossman\, Amin Maalouf and Olga Tokarczuk. The RSL international Writers program is an award recognizing the contribution of writers across the globe\, celebrating the power of literature to transcend boundaries. New writers are invited to join the program each year.\n\nYazbek has published two collections of short stories\, seven novels\, four non-fiction literary narratives. Samar Yazbek lives in France. Her books have been translated in over twenty languages.\n\nAbout the translator: \nLeri Price is an award-winning literary translator of contemporary Arabic fiction. She has twice been a Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature\, in 2021 for her translations of Samar Yazbek’s Planet of Clay\, and in 2019 for Khaled Khalifa’s Death is Hard Work. Her translation of Khalifa’s Death is Hard Work also won the 2020 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-where-the-wind-calls-home-with-the-author-samar-yazbek/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/May-2024-Book-Club-FB-2.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240519T173000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240519T183000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240418T153106Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240418T153106Z UID:10000045-1716139800-1716143400@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:Carte Blanche : Dialogue entre Alain Damasio et Karim Kattan DESCRIPTION:Nous avons le plaisir de vous retrouver le 19 mai 2024 dans le cadre de la Comédie du Livre à 17h30 pour une carte blanche d’Alain Damasio avec le poète et romancier palestinien Karim Kattan. L’occasion de découvrir ou redécouvrir son premier roman paru aux Éditions Elyzad\, Le palais des deux collines. \nUne rencontre organisée par The Markaz Review en partenariat avec le salon de la Comédie du Livre de Montpellier. \nCet événement prendra place dans l’espace Albertine Sarrazin – Promenade du Peyrou. \nEn savoir plus de Karim Kattan :  \nKarim Kattan est un écrivain palestinien\, né à Jérusalem en 1989. Il est titulaire d’un doctorat en littérature comparée de Paris Nanterre et écrit en anglais et en français. En français\, ses livres comprennent un recueil de nouvelles\, Préliminaires pour un verger futur (2017)\, et un roman\, Le Palais des deux collines (2021)\, tous deux publiés par les Éditions Elyzad\, basées à Tunis. Le Palais des deux collines a reçu le Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie en 2021 et a été présélectionné pour de nombreux autres prix. En anglais\, son travail est paru notamment dans The Paris Review\, Strange Horizons\, The Maine Review\, +972 Magazine\, Translunar Travelers Lounge et The Funambulist . Kattan a été l’un des cofondateurs et directeurs d’el-Atlal\, une résidence d’art et d’écriture dans l’oasis de Jéricho (Palestine). \nParcourir ses contributions pour The Markaz Review:  \n\nComment Bethléem est passée de l’arrière-pays endormi de Jérusalem à une ville mondiale\n“Eleazar” – une nouvelle de Karim Kattan\nKarim Kattan : “Le fossoyeur”\n\n  \nEn savoir plus de Alain Damasio :  \nAlain Damasio est un écrivain de science-fiction français. Son domaine de prédilection est l’anticipation politique. Il marie ce genre à des éléments de science-fiction ou de fantasy et décrit des dystopies politiques. URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/carte-blanche-dialogue-entre-alain-damasio-et-karim-kattan/ LOCATION:Espace Albertine Sarrazin – Promenade du Peyrou\, Montpellier\, 34000\, France ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/19.5-Evenement-a-Montpellier-avec-Karim-Kattan-Twitter-Post.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240516T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240516T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240509T173132Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240509T173132Z UID:10000047-1715886000-1715889600@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR 41 • FORGETTING Roundtable Discussion DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nJoin us online on Thursday\, May 16th at 1pm EST/ 7pm CET/ 6pm UK for our May roundtable discussion which invites four contributors to TMR 41\, FORGETTING\, to a conversation around the culture of memory and forgetting in the Arab world. \nAs Mai Al Nakib asserts in her essay\, “Writing is a memory archive\, [providing] a portal to lost time\, to fading traces of existence.” And this archive created and maintained by writers is often preserved against/in contradiction to/in defiance of/in resistance to and in spite of the approved narratives of the State. And so\, four writers from four different Arab countries\, each with its own traumatic and turbulent relationship to memory and forgetfulness—Nabil Salih\, from Iraq\, Mai Al Nakib\, from Kuwait\, Saleem Haddad\, from Palestine via Lebanon\, and Asmaa El Gamal\, from Egypt—sit down with senior editor Lina Mounzer\, from Lebanon\, to talk about those relationships and to discuss how personal memory might act upon the historical record. \nRead this month’s editorial by Malu Halasa and Jordan Elgrably\, “Why FORGETTING?”. \nRSVP here \n_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the speakers: \nLina Mounzer is a Lebanese writer and translator. She has been a regular contributor to the New York Times and her work has appeared in the Paris Review\, Freeman’s\, Washington Post\, and The Baffler\, as well as in the anthologies Tales of Two Planets (Penguin 2020)\, and Best American Essays 2022 (Harper Collins 2022). She is a senior editor at The Markaz Review. \n  \nMai Al-Nakib was born in Kuwait and spent the first six years of her life in London; Edinburgh; and St. Louis\, Missouri. She holds a PhD in English literature from Brown University. She was an Associate Professor of English and comparative literature at Kuwait University\, where she taught for twenty years; she recently left this position to write full-time. Her research focuses on cultural politics in the Middle East\, with a special emphasis on gender\, cosmopolitanism\, and postcolonial issues. Her short story collection\, The Hidden Light of Objects\, was published by Bloomsbury in 2014. It won the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s First Book Award. Her debut novel\, An Unlasting Home—published by Mariner Books in the US and Saqi in the UK—came out in paperback in April 2023. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in various publications\, including Ninth Letter; The First Line; After the Pause; World Literature Today; Rowayat; New Lines Magazine; and the BBC World Service. She divides her time between Kuwait and Greece. \nRead her centerpiece essay in this month’s issue\, “Memory Archive: Between Remembering and Forgetting.” \n  \nSaleem Haddad is a novelist\, screenwriter\, and essayist currently based in Lisbon\, with roots in Amman\, Beirut\, and London. His award-winning debut novel\, Guapa\, was published in 2016. \nRead his book review of “My Brother\, My Land: A Story from Palestine” in our May issue. \n  \nAsmaa Elgamal is a writer and scholar from Alexandria\, Egypt. She earned her PhD in International Development and Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\, where her research explored the colonial and military histories of spatial planning in the Middle East and North Africa. Her writing has appeared in New Lines Magazine\, Contingent Magazine\, and Insider. She was also longlisted for the 2021 DISQUIET International Literary Prize for Non-Fiction. \nRead her essay\, “The Elephant in the Box” in this month’s issue. \n  \nNabil Salih is a writer and photographer from Baghdad who holds an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown and is pursuing a second MA in Human Rights and the Arts at Bard College. His writings appear in Jadaliyya\, Allegra Lab\, Al Jazeera English and LeftEast among others\, and have been translated to Italian\, Spanish\, French and other languages. \nRead his essay\, “Regarding the Photographs of Others—An Iraqi Journey Toward Remembering” in our latest issue. \n  \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-41-forgetting-roundtable-discussion/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Roundtable ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/5.16-TMR-41-FORGETTING-Roundtable-Zoom-wide-banner.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240509T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240522T180000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240503T092954Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240520T032007Z UID:10000046-1715281200-1716400800@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:U.S. Book Tour: "Stories from the Center of the World" with editor Jordan Elgrably and contributing writers DESCRIPTION:RSVP form below. \n🗓️ WHAT: Book launch of new Middle East fiction anthology  \n🗣️ WHO: Editor Jordan Elgrably and various writers read from Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction  \n📍 WHERE: San Francisco\, Berkeley\, Sacramento\, Los Angeles\, Las Vegas\, Chicago\, Washington DC\, New York City. Each city has its own event link: \n\nMAY 9 (In-person & online) San Francisco\, City Lights\, with Sarah AlKahly-Mills\, 7 pm: https://citylights.com/events/jordan-elgrably/\nMAY 10 (In-person) Berkeley\, Books Inc with Sarah AlKahly-Mills\, 6 pm: https://www.booksinc.net/event/jordan-elgrably-books-inc-berkeley\nMAY 11 (In-person) Sacramento\, Capital Books\, 5 pm: https://capitalbooksonk.com/jordan-elgrably\nMAY 16 (In-person) Los Angeles\, Beyond Baroque with Reza Sixo Safai\, 8 pm: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-launch-stories-from-the-center-of-the-world-new-middle east-fiction-tickets-880484200947?aff=oddtdtcreator \nMAY 17 (In-person) Las Vegas with Ahmed Naji\, The Writers Block\, 7 pm: https://www.thewritersblock.org/events/upcoming-events\nMAY 20 (In-person) Chicago at Northwestern University Sahar Mustafah\, 4 pm: https://planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/615352 & https://www.facebook.com/events/1656522558491274/ \nMAY 21 (In-person & online) Washington DC\, Busboys and Poets\, with Natasha Tynes\, 6 pm: https://www.busboysandpoets.com/events/th-evt-38480538/\nMAY 22 (In-person) NYC at the NYPL Tompkins Square\, 6 pm with Omar El Akkad: https://arteeast.org/news-events/stories-from-the-center-of-the-world-readings-from-jordan-elgrably-and-omar-el-akkad/\n\n\nJoin us for the "Stories of the Center of the World" Book Tour from May 9-22!Celebrate the launch of "Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction\," published by City Lights\, with editor Jordan Elgrably and contributing writers.Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Which event(s) will you be joining us for? *May 9 - City Lights (San Francisco) with Jordan Elgrably and Sarah AlKahly-MillsMay 10 - Books Inc (Berkeley) with Jordan Elgrably and Sarah AlKahly-MillsMay 11 - Capital Books (Sacramento) with Jordan ElgrablyMay 16 - Beyond Baroque (Los Angeles) with Jordan Elgrably and Reza Sixo SafaiMay 17 - The Writers Block (Las Vegas) with Jordan Elgrably and Ahmed NajiMay 20 - Northwestern University (Chicago) with Jordan Elgrably and Sahar MustafahMay 21 - Busboys and Poets (Washington DC) with Jordan Elgrably and Natasha TynesMay 22 - NYPL Tompkins Square (NYC) with Jordan Elgrably and Omar El AkkadPlease select the date and location that you plan to attend from the drop-down list above\, you can select multiple options.RSVP \nDonations are welcome to support The Markaz Review. \n\n \nShort stories from 25 emerging and established writers of Middle Eastern and North  African origins\, a unique collection of voices and viewpoints that illuminate life in the  global Arab/Muslim world. \n“Provocative and subtle\, nuanced and surprising . . . these stories demonstrate how this  complicated and rich region might best be approached— through the power of literature…” —Viet Thanh Nguyen\, author of The Committed   \nStories from the Center of the World gathers new writing from the greater Middle East or SWANA — a vast region that stretches from Southwest Asia\,  through the Middle East and Turkey\, and across Northern Africa. The 25 authors included  here come from a wide range of cultures and countries\, including Palestine\, Syria\,  Pakistan\, Iran\, Lebanon\, Egypt\, and Morocco\, to name a few.  \nIn “Asha and Haaji\,” Hanif Kureishi takes up the cause of outsiders who become  uprooted when war or disaster strikes and they flee for safe haven. In Nektaria Anastasiadou’s  “The Location of the Soul According to Benyamin Alhadeff\,” two students in Istanbul from  different classes—and religions that have often been at odds with one another—believe they  can overcome all obstacles. MK Harb’s story\, “Counter Strike\,” is about queer love among  Beiruti adolescents\, and Salar Abdoh’s “The Long Walk of the Martyrs” invites us into the  world of former militants\, fighters who fought ISIS or Daesh in Iraq and Syria\, and are having  a hard time readjusting to civilian life. In “Eleazar\,” Karim Kattan tells an unexpected  Palestinian story in which the usual antagonists—Israeli occupation forces—are mostly  absent\, while another malevolent force seems to overtake an unsuspecting family. Omar  El Akkad’s “The Icarist” is a coming-of-age story about the underworld in which illegal immigrants are forced to live\, and what happens when one dares to break away.   \n \nJORDAN ELGRABLY is a Franco-American and Moroccan writer and translator\, whose  stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous     anthologies and reviews\,  including Apulée\, Salmagundi\, and The Paris Review. He is the editor of Stories from the  Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction (City Lights 2024) and co-editor with Malu  Halasa of Sumūd: a New Palestinian Reader (Seven Stories Press 2024). Elgrably founded  and edits The Markaz Review. URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/u-s-book-tour-stories-from-the-center-of-the-world-with-editor-jordan-elgrably-and-contributing-writers/ CATEGORIES:Author Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/May-24-Book-Tour-wide-banner-2.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240424T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240424T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240403T143157Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240403T143157Z UID:10000043-1713985200-1713988800@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "A Nearby Country Called Love" with author Salar Abdoh DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nJoin the TMR Book Club on Wednesday\, April 24th at 7pm CET/ 1pm EST/ 6pm UK to discuss “A Nearby Country Called Love” online with the author\, Salar Abdoh. \nAbout the book: \nA sweeping\, propulsive novel about the families we are born into and the families we make for ourselves\, in which a man struggles to find his place in an Iran on the brink of combusting. \nAmid the alleyways of the Zamzam neighborhood of Tehran\, a woman lights herself on fire in a desperate act of defiance\, setting off a chain reaction of violence and protest. Haunted by the woman’s death\, Issa is forced to confront the contradictions of his own family history\, throughout which his late brother Hashem\, a prominent queer artist in Tehran’s underground\, defied their father\, a skilled martial artist bound to traditional notions of honor and masculinity. \nIssa soon finds himself thrown into a circle of people living on the margins of society\, negotiating a razor-like code of conduct that rewards loyalty and encourages aggression and intolerance in equal measure. As the city explodes around him\, Issa realizes that it is the little acts of kindness that matter most\, the everyday humanity of individuals finding love and doing right by one another. \nVibrant and evocative\, intimate and intelligent\, A Nearby Country Called Love is both a captivating window into contemporary Iran and a portrait of the parallel fates of a man and his country—a man who acknowledges the sullen and rumbling baggage of history but then chooses to step past its violent inheritance. Published by Viking. \n  \nAbout the author: \nSalar Abdoh was born in Iran and splits his time between Tehran and New York City. He is the author of the novels Tehran at Twilight\, The Poet Game\, Opium\, and Out of Mesopotamia and the editor of Tehran Noir. He teaches in the MFA program at the City College of New York. \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-a-nearby-country-called-love-with-author-salar-abdoh/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Apr-2024-Book-Club-FB.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240418T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240418T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240409T152755Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240410T115635Z UID:10000044-1713466800-1713470400@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:Table ronde autour du Numéro 40 PARIS du point de vue de ses créatifs issus des mondes arabes DESCRIPTION:RSVP \nNous avons le plaisir de réunir 3 contributeurs de notre numéro de Paris pour discuter de leurs récits et portraits ainsi que de leur quotidien dans la capitale. \nNous vous donnons rendez-vous le jeudi 18 avril à 19h sur Zoom pour un moment d’échange et une invitation à revisiter ensemble la ville d’un point de vue oriental. \nCe numéro donne la parole à de nombreuses diasporas des mondes arabes dont l’histoire se mêle avec la ville des lumières. \nDécouvrez les écrits de nos trois invités: \nColine Houssais nous partage en exclusivité la genèse de son ouvrage Paris en lettres arabes qui sortira en mai prochain aux éditions Actes Sud. \nWanis El Kabbaj nous livre un témoignage intime de la vie de son père à Paris intitulé Heureux comme un Arabe à Paris. \nSasha Moujaes nous conte un portrait passionnant d’Ariella Aïsha Azoulay en lien avec son dernier livre La résistance des bijoux aux éditions Rot Bo Krik : Depuis Paris\, défaire les géographies coloniales. \nRetrouvez l’éditorial de notre rédacteur en chef Jordan Elgrably: Pourquoi Paris? \n____________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nColine Houssais \nNée en Bretagne\, Coline Houssais est une auteure\, commissaire et chercheuse indépendante spécialisée dans l’histoire culturelle de l’immigration maghrébine et proche-orientale en Europe ainsi que dans les musiques du monde arabe. Diplômée de Sciences Po\, l’Institut Français d’Études Arabes de Damas\, l’INALCO et la London School of Economics\, elle enseigne à Sciences Po. Fondatrice de l’Agence Ustaza à Paris\, elle est également résidente de la Fondation Camargo (2020) et du programme de résidence IMéRA-MUCEM (2021). Ses dernières publications incluent une anthologie de la musique arabe (“Musiques du Monde Arabe\, une anthologie en 100 artistes”\, Le Mot et le Reste\, 2020) et une participation aux deux premiers volumes d’Araborama (Institut du Monde Arabe/Seuil). \n  \nSasha Moujaes  \nOriginaire de Beyrouth\, Sasha Moujaes est actuellement basée à Paris. Diplômée de Sciences Po et de l’Institut national des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO)\, elle s’est spécialisée en sociologie politique avec un intérêt particulier pour les mondes arabo-méditerranéens. Après plusieurs années d’expérience dans le secteur culturel\, elle s’engage aujourd’hui dans des projets associatifs au croisement des enjeux LBGTQI+ et de migration. \n  \nWanis El Kabbaj \nNé à Paris\, et de nationalité franco-marocaine\, Wanis El Kabbaj a 25 ans d’expérience en marketing sur 4 continents. Ayant grandi dans une famille férue de littérature et autour des livres d’Amine Maalouf\, Taha Hussein\, Naguib Mahfouz\, il a développé une profonde appréciation pour les récits puissants\, les phrases ciselées et les mots justes. C’est cet amour qui l’a poussé à donner deux TED Talks sur l’avenir des transports urbains et la relation ambivalente entre les nationalismes et la mondialisation qui ont recueilli 6 millions de vues dans le monde entier. Wanis est passionné de diversité culturelle\, qu’il expérimente au quotidien dans sa propre famille et milite pour l’émergence de sociétés inclusives\, humanistes et ouvertes. \n____________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nRSVP \n  URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/table-ronde-autour-du-numero-40-paris-du-point-de-vue-de-ses-creatifs-issus-des-mondes-arabes/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/18.4-TMR-40-PARIS-Table-rond-Zoom-Banner-1.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240331T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20240331T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240306T091834Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240306T092716Z UID:10000041-1711911600-1711915200@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "The Applicant" with author Nazli Koca DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nJoin TMR’s Book Club on March 31st at 1pm EST/ 7pm CET to discuss Nazli Koca’s “The Applicant” and meet the author. \nAbout the book:\nIt’s 2017 and Leyla\, a Turkish twenty-something living in Berlin is scrubbing toilets at an Alice in Wonderland-themed hostel after failing her thesis\, losing her student visa\, and suing her German university in a Kafkaesque attempt to reverse her failure. \nIncreasingly distant from what used to be at arm’s reach—writerly ambitions\, tight knit friendships\, a place to call home—Leyla attempts to find solace in the techno beats of Berlin’s nightlife\, with little success. Right as the clock winds down on the hold on her visa\, Leyla meets a conservative Swedish tourist and—against her political convictions and better judgment—begins to fall in love\, or something like it. Will she accept an IKEA life with the Volvo salesman and relinquish her creative dreams\, or return to Turkey to her mother and sister\, codependent and enmeshed\, her father’s ghost still haunting their lives? \nWhile she waits for the German court’s verdict on her future\, in the pages of her diary\, Leyla begins to parse her unresolved past and untenable present. An indelible character at once precocious and imperiled\, Leyla gives voice to the working-class and immigrant struggle to find safety\, self-expression\, and happiness. “The Applicant” is an extraordinary dissection of a liminal life between borders and identities\, an original and darkly funny debut. \nAbout the author: \nNazlı Koca is a writer and poet from Turkey who now lives in the US. Her writing has appeared in the Threepenny Review\, Bookforum\, and Second Factory\, among other outlets. “The Applicant” is her first novel. \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-the-applicant-with-author-nazli-koca/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Mar-2024-Book-Club-Banner-FB.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240321T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240321T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240311T133032Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T092247Z UID:10000042-1711047600-1711051200@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR 39 • BURN IT ALL DOWN Roundtable Discussion DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nThe Markaz Review presents a conversation around TMR 39’s theme\, BURN IT ALL DOWN\, in which senior editor Lina Mounzer talks to three of the issue’s contributors on their essays.  \nIn her editorial\, “Why Burn It All Down?”\, Mounzer quoted the poetry of John Donne and suggested that the Gaza genocide represents “a collective diminishment” of us all — westerners and easterners alike\, while in her essay “The Time of Monsters\,” Layla AlAmmar took inspiration from several Arab poets\, including Khalil Gibran\, as well as writers Walter Benjamin and Antonio Gramsci\, and argued that Hamas was trying “to stop the Nakba.” In “Al-Thakla—Arabic as the Original Mourner\,” Abdelrahman ElGendy struggles with wishing to express himself in Arabic while admitting that English holds more currency; he argues that “English does not give me a seat at the table [but] offers me the chance to point at the table.” ElGendy asks: “How do you hold your grief in a language that’s been its main perpetrator?” And Michelle Eid in her essay “Israel’s Environmental and Economic War on Lebanon” suggests that Israel isn’t only at war with the Palestinians\, but perhaps the entire region. What needs to be dismantled or destroyed before a new world can be ushered in? This conversation gives the microphone to a younger Arab generation who\, though perfectly fluent in English\, takes issue with western hegemonic discourse. \nThis roundtable discussion will take place online on March 21st at 2pm EST/ 7pm CET/ 6pm UK. This event is open and free to the public. Donations are welcome to support The Markaz Review.  \nRSVP here \n_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the speakers: \nLINA MOUNZER is a Lebanese writer and translator. She has been a regular contributor to the New York Times and her work has appeared in the Paris Review\, Freeman’s\, Washington Post\, and The Baffler\, as well as in the anthologies Tales of Two Planets (Penguin 2020)\, and Best American Essays 2022 (Harper Collins 2022). She is a senior editor at The Markaz Review. \nRead her editorial in our March issue\, TMR 39 • BURN IT ALL DOWN: Why “Burn it All Down”? \nLAYLA ALAMMAR is a writer and academic from Kuwait. She earned a PhD in Arab women’s fiction and literary trauma theory\, and she has an MSc in Creative Writing. Her debut novel\, The Pact We Made (2019)\, was longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award. Her second novel\, Silence is a Sense (2021)\, was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. She has written for The Guardian\, LitHub\, the Times Literary Supplement\, ArabLit Quarterly\, The New Arab\, GQ Middle East\, and NewLines Magazine. \nRead her essay in our March issue\, TMR 39 • BURN IT ALL DOWN: The Time of Monsters \nABDELRAHMAN ELGENDY is a Dietrich fellow at the University of Pittsburgh’s Nonfiction Writing MFA\, and a Heinz fellow at Pitt’s Global Studies Center. His work has received awards or fellowships from Logan Nonfiction Program\, Tin House Workshop\, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He was a finalist for the 2021 and 2023 Margolis Award for Social Justice Journalism. \nRead his centerpiece essay in our March issue\, TMR 39 • BURN IT ALL DOWN: Al-Thakla—Arabic as the Original Mourner  \nMICHELLE EID is a researcher\, consultant\, and editor. Her areas of interest are socio-economic rights and development\, focusing on agriculture and food sovereignty in the Levant. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Al Rawiya\, a magazine focused on the Levant region. \nRead her essay in our March issue\, TMR 39 • BURN IT ALL DOWN: Israel’s Environmental and Economic Warfare on Lebanon \n  \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-39-burn-it-all-down-roundtable-discussion/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Roundtable ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/3.21-TMR-39-BIAD-Roundtable-Zoom-banner-1.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240307T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240307T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240221T140926Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240223T195716Z UID:10000040-1709838000-1709841600@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Conversations: Rula Jebreal on the Present Moment DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nJoin us on March 7th at 1pm EST/ 7pm CET/ 6pm UK for an interview organized by TMR’s Editor-in-Chief Jordan Elgrably with Rula Jebreal about what it means to be a Palestinian writer in an era when Palestinian writers and journalists are considered by Israel to be enemies of the state. Jebreal will address the reality in Gaza and the West Bank\, and where we go from here. \nThis online event is free and open to the public. Donations are welcome to support The Markaz Review. \n____________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the speaker \nRula Jebreal is an award-winning journalist\, author\, and foreign policy analyst renowned for her groundbreaking work in Europe\, the United States\, and across the Middle East. Jebreal’s diverse body of work reflects her life-long engagement with topics that have directly impacted her life\, both personally and professionally\, from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict\, the war on terror\, and global far right movements rising throughout Europe and the United States. Jebreal has also grappled with the the war on truth\, propaganda and conspiracy theories\, and in fact for the past five years has been teaching a course at the University of Miami\, entitled “Persuasion\, Propaganda\, and Genocide.” She is an international bestselling author\, whose novel Miral\, among other works\, has been translated into more than 14 languages. Jebreal is a Visiting Professor at the University of Miami\, and serves on the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council\, a body relaunched in 2018 by French President Emmanuel Macron\, as well as the Advisory Board of The U.S./Middle East Project. She is fluent in Italian\, English\, Hebrew\, and Arabic. \n____________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-conversations-rula-jebreal-on-the-present-moment/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/3.7-TMR-Conversations-Rula-Jebreal-on-the-Present-Moment-Zoom-banner-1.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240225T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240225T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240205T161226Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240205T161226Z UID:10000037-1708887600-1708891200@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "Woman Life Freedom: Voices and Art from the Women’s Protest in Iran" with editor Malu Halasa DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nWe are on the one-year anniversary of the women’s freedom marches in Iran. \nJina Mahsa Amini’s death at the hands of Iran’s Morality Police on 16th of September\, 2022 sparked widespread protests across the country. Women took to the streets\, uncovering their hair\, burning headscarves and chanting “Woman Life Freedom’ — ‘Zan Zendegi Azadi” in Persian and “Jin Jîyan Azadî” in Kurdish — in mass demonstrations. An explosion of creative resistance followed as art and photography shared online went viral and people around the world saw what was really going on in Iran. \nWoman Life Freedom captures this historic moment in artwork and first-person accounts. This striking collection goes behind the scenes at forbidden fashion shows; records the sound of dissent in Iran where it is illegal for women to sing unaccompanied in public; and walks the streets of Tehran with ‘The Smarties’ — Gen Z women who colour and show their hair in defiance of the authorities\, despite the potentially devastating consequences. Extolling the power of art\, writing and body politics — both female and queer — this collection is a universal rallying call and a celebration of the women the regime has tried and failed to silence. \nPublished by Saqi Books\, London. We meet the editor\, Malu Halasa\, to talk about the book online\, on Sunday\, Feb. 25 at 1 pm Eastern/19:00 CET. \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-woman-life-freedom-voices-and-art-from-the-womens-protest-in-iran-with-editor-malu-halasa/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Feb-2024-Book-Club-Banner-FB.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240222T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240222T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240212T122841Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240212T122841Z UID:10000039-1708628400-1708632000@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Conversations: Resistance in the Face of Annihilation DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nLayla Maghribi interviews Palestinian filmmakers Hind Shoufani and Saeed Taji Farouky on activism and art in Palestinian filmmaking today\, and on the role of Palestinian artists in the resistance movement\, as well as how to push back against anti-Arab and Palestinian cancellation and censorship in today’s super-charged media landscape. \nLayla will interview Hind and Saeed live on February 22nd at 1pm EST/ 7pm CET/ 6pm UK. This online event is open to all and free to the public; donations are welcome to support The Markaz Review. \nRSVP here \n_______________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the speakers \nLayla Maghribi is a British Arab journalist\, currently based in the UK after several years in the Middle East working for international media outlets\, including Reuters and CNN International. Raised in England\, Layla has lived in Italy\, Syria\, Lebanon and the UAE\, and has a special interest in social issues affecting Arabic-speaking communities\, particularly in relation to culture\, immigration and mental health. She is a correspondent with The National News based in London. You can read more of her work here or on Twitter @layla_maghribi. \nHind Shoufani is has been a filmmaker\, writer and poet for the past 25 years. She recently won a BAFTA for the Oscar-nominated short film “The Present\,” and her latest documentary\, Heavy Metal\, premiered at the Tribeca Film\nFestival in 2023. Her first feature film Trip Along Exodus screened in over 30 countries. She is a Fulbright scholar from Jordan\, with an MFA in film from The Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Hind has won awards for her personal and professional achievements\, helmed commercial projects for corporate and NGO clients\, and influenced the literary cultural scene in the SWANA region through events\, mentorship & publications. She has published creative essays\, prose and poetry in numerous international journals\, magazines and anthologies. \nSaeed Taji Farouky is a Palestinian-Egyptian-British filmmaker\, educator\, and curator. His documentary A Thousand Fires won the Marco Zucchi award for most innovative documentary in the Directors Fortnight of the 2021 Locarno Film Festival. A previous documentary Tell Spring Not to Come This Year premiered at the Berlinale 2015 and won the Audience Choice Panorama Award and the Amnesty Human Rights Award. He runs the Radical Film School in London\, a free film course for participants from backgrounds underrepresented in the film industry.  \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-conversations-resistance-in-the-face-of-annihilation/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.22-TMR-Conversations-Resistance-in-the-Face-of-Annihilation-Zoom-banner.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240215T173000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240215T183000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240207T093311Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240207T095354Z UID:10000038-1708018200-1708021800@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Conversations: Anna Lekas Miller on "Love Across Borders" with Lina Mounzer DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nWhen Anna Lekas Miller met and fell in love with Salem Rizk in Istanbul\, she had no idea that the obstacles they would have to overcome in order to build a life together would include a Muslim Ban and the UK Home Office. The fellow journalists were both in Istanbul covering the fallout from the Syrian war and the ISIS occupation. But when a deportation order for Rizk was issued\, the couple was forced to contend with all the heretofore invisible structural inequalities between them\, a result of the lopsided choices afforded to them by their respective passports (American; Syrian). \nLekas Miller’s book\, Love Across Borders\, is at once a recounting of the couple’s efforts to find a place that would allow both of them to settle down long-term without fear of deportation\, as well as an overview of the borders and laws that have come to shape love stories such as theirs. On the way\, she speaks to a number of other couples—in the US\, Europe\, and Lebanon—about their struggles (some truly harrowing) to build a life together in a world where your worth as a human being is often assessed in relation to your passport. \nFor TMR’s February issue\, appropriately entitled LSD (for Love\, Sex\, Desire)\, Anna Lekas Miller will be in discussion with writer and TMR Senior Editor Lina Mounzer. The discussion\, much to Lekas Miller’s chagrin\, is scheduled for February 15 – as close to Valentine’s Day as possible without foiling anyone’s plans for the big day. \n“Honestly\, I hate Valentine’s Day\,” she confided\, “but because of this book I’m forever associated with it\, for better or for worse.” \nThis led to a brainwave on Mounzer’s behalf\, who will be steering the discussion through the book and the process of writing it\, but will also put Lekas Miller in the hot seat with a series of fun and racy questions about all things love and romance. Audience members are also invited to ask questions pertaining to both facets of the book\, which is at once a serious political manifesto and a series of heart-pounding romantic tales. And given that it’s around Valentine’s Day\, if someone is looking for romantic advice\, perhaps the discussants might also be persuaded to weigh in…Join us on February 15\, 2024 at 5:30pm CET/ 4:30pm UK/ 11:30am EST. \nRSVP here \n_______________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the speakers \nAnna Lekas Miller is a writer and journalist who covers stories of the ways that conflict and migration shape the lives of people around the world. She has reported from Palestine\, Lebanon\, Turkey\, and Iraq\, covering the Israeli occupation\, the Syrian civil war and exodus to Europe\, and the rise and fall of the Islamic State. Since moving to London\, she has turned her attention to the rise of the far right in Europe and the United States\, investigating immigration systems\, white supremacist ideology\, and the ways that people are standing up to them. She is most interested in stories of love and healing in an unpredictable and unstable world. Her journalism and essays have appeared in Vanity Fair\, the Intercept\, CNN\, the New Humanitarian\, The Markaz Review and New Lines. \nLina Mounzer is a Lebanese writer and translator. She has been a regular contributor to the New York Times and her work has appeared in the Paris Review\, Freeman’s\, Washington Post\, and The Baffler\, as well as in the anthologies Tales of Two Planets (Penguin 2020)\, and Best American Essays 2022 (Harper Collins 2022). She is a senior editor at The Markaz Review. \n_______________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nThis online event is open to all and free to the public; donations are welcome to support The Markaz Review. \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-conversations-anna-lekas-miller-on-love-across-borders-with-lina-mounzer/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.15-TMR-Conversations-with-Anna-Lekas-Miller-Zoom-banner-wide.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240128T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20240128T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20240111T133206Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240122T144445Z UID:10000036-1706468400-1706472000@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "Traces of Enayat" with Iman Mersal DESCRIPTION:RSVP here \nCairo\, 1963: Enayat al-Zayyat’s suicide becomes a byword for talent tragically cut down\, even as Love and Silence\, her only novel\, languishes unpublished. Four years after al-Zayyat’s death\, the novel will be brought out\, adapted for film and radio\, praised\, and then\, cursorily\, forgotten. For the next three decades it’s as if al-Zayyat never existed. \nYet when poet Iman Mersal stumbles across Love and Silence in the nineties\, she is immediately hooked. Who was Enayat? Did the thought of her novel’s rejection really lead to her suicide? Where did this startling voice come from? And why did Love and Silence disappear from literary history? To answer these questions\, Mersal traces Enayat’s life\, interviews family members and friends\, reconstructs the afterlife of Enayat in the media\, and tracks down the flats\, schools\, archaeological institutes\, and sanatoriums among which Enayat divided her days. Touching on everything from dubious antidepressants to domestic abuse and divorce law\, from rubbish-strewn squats in the City of the Dead to the glamour of golden-age Egyptian cinema\, this wide-ranging\, unclassifiable masterpiece gives us a remarkable portrait of a woman artist striving to live on her own terms. Published by And Other Stories in the UK. \nWe will meet to discuss the book with the author on Sunday\, Jan. 28 at 1 pm Eastern/19:00 CET. \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-traces-of-enayat-with-iman-mersal/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Jan-2024-Book-Club-FB-banner.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20231207T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20231207T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20231124T084626Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231124T101813Z UID:10000035-1701975600-1701979200@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:Aliyeh Ataei\, Écrivaine Afghane-Iranienne\, Présente Son Livre d'Essais au Grain des Mots DESCRIPTION:The Markaz Review et le Grain des Mots organisent une rencontre littéraire le 7 décembre avec \nALIYEH ATAEI pour son livre LA FRONTIÈRE DES OUBLIÉS aux éditions Gallimard. \n \nRendez-vous à la librairie indépendante de Montpellier\, le Grain des Mots\, le jeudi 7 décembre à 19:00\n15 Bd du Jeu de Paume\, 34000 Montpellier\n\n\n\nLa frontière des oubliés\n[Koorsorkhi] \n\n\nTraduction du persan par Sabrina Nouri –Préface d’Atiq Rahimi\nCollection Du monde entier\, Gallimard \n\n\n\nNeuf récits composent La frontière des oubliés et retracent le parcours de l’écrivaine\, depuis sa fuite\, enfant\, de la frontière afghane pour se bâtir une vie à Téhéran. Dans chacune de ces vignettes de vie qui se font écho\, elle brosse le portrait de ses compatriotes exilés\, des « frontaliers »\, souvent des femmes\, qui portent tous des traces de la guerre\, des plaies profondes marquées par des balles invisibles. À chaque rencontre\, elle s’interroge sur la violence\, l’exil et l’identité. En s’imprégnant de son propre vécu\, Aliyeh Ataei embrasse ici plus largement le sort de tous ceux qui ont hérité des « chromosomes-douleurs »\, se faisant l’écho de leurs voix si peu audibles.\n\nLa frontière des oubliés nous fait découvrir une nouvelle plume puissante venue d’Iran. De son style clair et tranchant\, Aliyeh Ataei dévoile des vérités qui secouent\, et bouleversent.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAvec la modération de Jahangir Farazmand (événement en persan et français). Professeur d’anglais à l’Université de Montpellier\, Jahangir Farazmand a passé les premières onze années de sa vie à Téhéran ; il a quitté l’Iran trois mois avant la révolution islamique pour venir en France\, sans se douter que son voyage allait durer quatre décennies. URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/07-12-aliyeh-ataei-ecrivaine-afghane-iranienne-presente-son-livre-dessais-au-grain-des-mots/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/rencontre-litteraire-7-decembre-2-aliyeh-ataei.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20231126T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20231126T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20231115T121541Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231115T123722Z UID:10000034-1701025200-1701028800@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "Palestine +100: stories from a century after the Nakba" with Special Guests DESCRIPTION:RSVP here\nPalestine + 100: stories from a century after the Nakba poses a question to 12 Palestinian writers: what might your country look like in the year 2048 — a century after the tragedies and trauma of what has come to be called the Nakba. How might this event — which\, in 1948\, saw the expulsion of over 700\,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes — reach across a century of occupation\, oppression\, and political isolation\, to shape the country and its people? Will a lasting peace finally have been reached\, or will future technology only amplify the suffering and mistreatment of Palestinians? \nCovering a range of approaches — from sci-fi noir\, to nightmarish dystopia\, to high-tech farce — these stories use the blank canvas of the future to reimagine the Palestinian experience today. Along the way\, we encounter drone swarms\, digital uprisings\, time-bending VR\, peace treaties that span parallel universes\, and even a Palestinian superhero\, in probably the first anthology of science fiction from Palestine ever. \nTranslated from the Arabic by Raph Cormack\, Mohamed Ghalaieny\, Andrew Leber\, Thoraya El-Rayyes\, Yasmine Seale and Jonathan Wright. Published by Comma Press in the UK.  \nWe will meet to discuss the book with host Rana Asfour and special guest writers Basma Ghalayini and Selma Dabbagh on Sunday\, Nov. 26 at 1pm EST/ 7pm EST/ 6pm UK. \nRSVP here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-palestine-100-stories-from-a-century-after-the-nakba-with-special-guests/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Nov-2023-Book-Club-Promo.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20231114T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20231114T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20231102T115157Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231102T200319Z UID:10000032-1699988400-1699992000@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:Avi Shlaim on His Memoir Three Worlds and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict DESCRIPTION:RSVP here.\nRespected historian at Oxford and author Avi Shlaim (The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World) was born in Iraq but raised and came of age in Israel. In his new memoir Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew\, he describes the bygone world of Arab Jews\, reviews the narrative of Zionism and its call to “rescue” eastern Jews from the Middle East\, and critiques many of the received ideas about Jews and Arabs. \nJournalist Layla Maghribi interviews Avi Shlaim live on November 14 at 7pm CET/ 6pm UK/ 1pm EST. They will discuss Three Worlds\, as well as the present war on Gaza and the implications of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. \nThis online event is open to all and free to the public; donations are welcome to support The Markaz Review. \nRSVP here.\n\n\nAbout the speakers\nAvi Shlaim was born in Baghdad and grew up in Israel.  As one of the “New Historians” in Israel\, he was part of a group that reassessed the history of the country and often shined a light on the repression of the Palestinians. He is now a Professor of International Relations at St Antony’s College\, Oxford. His previous books include the critically acclaimed The Iron Wall and he writes regularly for the Guardian\, Middle East Eye and other outlets. \nLayla Maghribi is a British Arab journalist\, currently based in the UK after several years in the Middle East working for international media outlets\, including Reuters and CNN International. Raised in England\, Layla has lived in Italy\, Syria\, Lebanon and the UAE\, and has a special interest in social issues affecting Arabic-speaking communities\, particularly in relation to culture\, immigration and mental health. She is currently the host of Third Culture Therapy\, a podcast that explores mental wellbeing from a cultural perspective and is writing her first non-fiction book. You can read more of her work here or on Twitter @layla_maghribi. \n  \n\n\nMore about this event\nThe guest for this upcoming event is Baghdad-born British-Israeli historian\, Avi Shlaim and will be guest hosted by writer and podcaster\, Layla Maghribi. Shlaim will be discussing his latest book\, Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew\, and how many of the revelatory themes are relevant to the current war on Gaza. \nEvocatively recollecting a bygone era in Baghdad before the 1950s\, when some 130\,000 Jews lived almost entirely harmoniously alongside their Muslim compatriots\, Shlaim’s book was already an intriguing read when it came out earlier this spring. Now\, to the backdrop of unremitting violence and upheaval in Israel / Palestine\, I reread it with a mixture of searing lament for a lost era and a much-needed inspiration for a possibly peaceful future. \nBesides debunking the Zionist-propagated myth that Arabs and Jews have always hated each other\, Shlaim’s book lays bare other controversies. Years of research and archival work led him to conclude that it was Israeli-backed militants who were behind many of the bombings targeting Jews in Iraq in the 1950s and not Arab-Iraqis\, as was claimed. Israel’s terrorising actions against Iraqi-Jews were inflicted in a bid to encourage massive migration to Israel with the promise that they would be safer\, and more prosperous\, in country solely for Jews. Shlaim’s revelations shine a painful spotlight on the traumatisation of innocent civilians for political gains as well as the weaponization of antisemitism\, issues that remain painfully weighty today. \nThe memoir is a coming-of-age story between multiple worlds – the Arab\, Jewish\, Israeli and British. Tracing his early years in Baghdad\, where in 1945 Shlaim was born the youngest child and only son of a prosperous Jewish businessman and notable member of Iraqi of community\, his happy childhood is upended with the sudden fleeing of his family to Israel when he was five years old. \nIn Israel\, the “promised land” failed to deliver any tangible gains for the Shlaim family who had fallen steeply in economic and social status following their reluctant exile. After centuries of living in and among Arabs\, and being an indelible part of the culture\, the Shlaim family\, like many Arab-Jews of that era\, were tragically uprooted from their lives and communities for the sake of an ideology they were reluctantly forced to adopt. Besides not subscribing to the narrowly exclusive Zionist identity\, the discrimination they faced for being Arab Jews\, or Mizrahim as they are referred to in Israel\, compounded his family’s sense of alienation. Robbed of their belonging in Iraq and rejected by their community in Israel\, Shlaim recounts with poignant clarity the pains of a cohort of Zionism’s oft-ignored victims. \n  \nRSVP here. URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/avi-shlaim-on-three-worlds-and-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Author Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/FB-11.14-Interview-w-Avi-Shlaim-and-Layla-Maghribi-Publication-Facebook.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231101T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231101T140000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20231026T133457Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231027T211124Z UID:10000031-1698843600-1698847200@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR 35 Public Intellectual Roundtable Discussion DESCRIPTION:RSVP here. \nOn November 1st\, at 6pm CET (1pm EST/5pm UK/9pm Abu Dhabi)\, The Markaz Review presents a roundtable conversation\, moderated by TMR Senior Editor Lina Mounzer\, with writers Hisham Bustani and Moustafa Bayoumi\, on public intellectuals and their engagement with politics\, justice and conflict in these catastrophic times. \nThis online roundtable is open to all\, free to the public; donations are welcome to support The Markaz Review. \nRSVP here. URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-35-public-intellectual-roundtable-discussion/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/11.1-TMR-35-PI-Roundtable-promo.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231029T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231029T150000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20231006T102736Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231015T120031Z UID:10000030-1698588000-1698591600@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses Khaled Khalifa's "No One Prayed Over Their Graves" DESCRIPTION:RSVP here. \nThis month\, the TMR Book Club is reading and discussing No One Prayed Over Their Graves by Khaled Khalifa. \n  \nLONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED FICTION\n\n“Gorgeous . . . Lush\, elegiac [and] Márquezian . . . A novel of abundance and generosity.” —Sarah Cypher\, The Washington Post\n\n“Richly embroidered . . . [Khalifa’s] galloping narration restores life and soul to a city that has become a byword for devastation.” —The Economist\n\nFrom the National Book Award finalist Khaled Khalifa\, the story of two friends whose lives are altered by a flood that devastates their Syrian village. \n\n\nOn a December morning in 1907\, two close friends\, Hanna and Zakariya\, return to their village near Aleppo after a night of drunken carousing in the city\, only to discover that there has been a massive flood. Their neighbors\, families\, children—nearly all of them are dead. Their homes\, shops\, and places of worship are leveled. Their lives will never be the same. \nHanna was once a wealthy libertine\, a landowner who built a famed citadel devoted to the pursuit of pleasure and excess. But with the loss of his home\, wife\, and community\, he transforms\, becoming an ascetic mystic obsessed with death and the meaning of life. In No One Prayed Over Their Graves\, we follow Hanna’s life before and after the flood\, tracing friendships\, loves and lusts\, family and business\, until he is just one thread in the rich tapestry of Aleppo. \n  \nKhaled Khalifa weaves a sweeping tale of life and death in the hubbub of Aleppine society at the turn of the twentieth century. No One Prayed Over Their Graves is a portrait of a people on the verge of great change—from provincial villages to the burgeoning modernity of the city\, where Christians\, Muslims\, and Jews live and work together\, united in their love for Aleppo and their dreams for the future. \nPublished by MacMillan in the US and Faber in the UK. We meet to discuss the book on Sunday\, Oct. 29 at 2 pm Eastern/19:00 CET. This event has been organized in collaboration with Afikra. \nRSVP here. URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-khaled-khalifas-no-one-prayed-over-their-graves/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Oct-2023-Book-Club-Promo.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20230926T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20230926T200000 DTSTAMP:20260407T204204 CREATED:20230908T120944Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230908T121155Z UID:10000029-1695754800-1695758400@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:26 sept\, Montpellier— Rencontre Littéraire\, "Oublier Camus" avec Olivier Gloag DESCRIPTION:Rencontre avec Olivier Gloag\, auteur franco-américain; maître de conférence à l’université de Caroline du Nord (UNC).\nModération de Pierre Daum\, reporter au Monde Diplomatique\, et auteur d’ouvrages sur le passé colonial de la France. \nmardi\, 26 septembre\, 19h au Librairie Le Grain des mots\, 15 Bd du Jeu de Paume\, 34000 Montpellier. Entrée libre. \n\nDes programmes scolaires aux discours politiques\, dans les médias et les conversations mondaines\, Camus est partout le parangon d’un humanisme abstrait qui a ceci de commode – et de suspect – qu’il plait à droite comme à gauche. Peu de chercheurs se sont penchés sur les contradictions du personnage comme le fait Olivier Gloag dans son ouvrage Oublier Camus (La Fabrique\, sept. 2023)\, à partir d’une relecture de Camus dans le texte – contradictions qui constituent pourtant la force motrice de l’œuvre camusienne\, une clé de son « style »\, et expliquent sa popularité actuelle. \nOlivier Gloag rappelle l’attachement viscéral de Camus au colonialisme et au mode de vie des colons qui traverse ses trois romans majeurs\, L’Étranger\, La Peste et Le Premier Homme. Il examine ses engagements politiques à la lumière de sa brouille avec Sartre : la tension entre révolte et révolution\, son recours à l’absurde comme refus du cours de l’Histoire\, son anticommunisme et son déni de la lutte des peuples colonisés. Il se penche enfin sur les récupérations de Camus : l’auteur le plus populaire en France et le Français le plus lu dans le monde est devenu un enjeu politique et idéologique. L’invocation d’un Camus mythifié projette un reflet flatteur mais falsificateur de l’histoire coloniale. C’est ce Camus-là qu’il faut oublier pour reconnaître les déchirements d’un écrivain tout aussi passionnément attaché aux acquis sociaux du Front populaire qu’à la présence française en Algérie. URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/26-sept-rencontre-litteraire-oublier-camus-avec-olivier-gloag/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/26-sept-flyer.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR