BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//The Markaz Review - ECPv6.15.18//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH 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: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 BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0300 TZNAME:EEST DTSTART:20260329T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0300 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:EET DTSTART:20261025T010000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250522T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250522T200000 DTSTAMP:20260405T213613 CREATED:20250509T115540Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250509T115709Z UID:10000083-1747940400-1747944000@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:CAN YOU EVER GO HOME AGAIN? – A roundtable on TMR's RETURNING HOME DESCRIPTION:RSVP now \nIn the 50th issue of The Markaz Review’s RETURNING HOME\, writers and artists reflect on whether we can really ever go home again. In “Home is Elsewhere: On the Fictions of Return\,” Mai Al-Nakib writes that her childhood home differed from her birthplace; she perceives home as more imaginary than real.  In “A Kashmiri in Cashmere\,” Nafeesa Syeed hopes she’ll feel at home in a small Washington town east of Seattle\, named after her native region\, caught between India and Pakistan. And Gabriel Polley interviews British-Bahraini musician-composer Yazz Ahmed in “Arabic Jazz and Yazz Ahmed: A Music Between Homelands\,” on how Arabic jazz challenges negative stereotypes amid rising xenophobia in the West. The issue contains 14 stories\, looking at Sudanese creatives in Egypt\, young Palestinian citizens of Israel\, an Iraqi artist who goes home after living in the USA for 40 years\, and much more. \nJoin us on Thursday\, May 22nd at 1pm EST/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET for a roundtable discussion on our 50th issue\, RETURNING HOME\, with writers Mai Al-Nakib\, Gabriel Polley and Nafeesa Syeed. Moderated by Lina Mounzer.  \nThis online event is free but advance registration is required. Donations are welcome to support The Markaz Review. \n____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the speakers: \nMai Al-Nakib is author of the novel\, An Unlasting Home and the award-winning collection of short stories\, The Hidden Light of Objects. As an associate professor\, she taught English and comparative literature at Kuwait University for twenty years. She now writes full time in Kuwait. \nGabriel Polley has a PhD in Palestine studies from the European Centre for Palestine Studies\, University of Exeter\, UK. He previously studied history of art and literature at the University of East Anglia\, and Palestine and Arabic studies at Birzeit University\, and taught in the occupied West Bank. He currently works in London in the translation and international development sectors. Palestine in the Victorian Age is his first book. \nNafeesa Syeed is a writer and editor who hails from Kashmir. She’s also a lecturer and associate research scholar at Yale. \nLina Mounzer (moderator) is the senior editor of The Markaz Review and a prominent essayist whose creative nonfiction has appeared widely\, including in The Baffler and the Paris Review\, among other publications. \n____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nRSVP now URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/can-you-ever-go-home-again-a-roundtable-on-tmrs-returning-home/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Roundtable ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/5.22-TMR-50-Roundtable-Discussion-Zoom-wide.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250523 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250615 DTSTAMP:20260405T213613 CREATED:20250515T101641Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250515T101641Z UID:10000084-1747958400-1749945599@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Exhibition: Art of the Palestinian Poster at P21 Gallery — Shubbak Festival DESCRIPTION:An evocative exhibition showcases the resurgence of Palestinian political posters as powerful works of art and vital campaigning tools during the war on Gaza for Shubbak 2025. Curated by TMR’s literary editor Malu Halasa\, the collection includes anti-war works by the original members of New Vision collective — artists fundamental to the creation of Palestinian modern art Vera Tamari\, Sliman Mansour\, Tayseer Barakat\, and Nabil Anani — alongside contemporary posters by Gazan artist Hazem Harb\, popular Lebanese musician Khaled El Haber\, and Palestinian new generation poster-maker Haneen Nazzal\, among many others. \nASAD AZI (Palestinian\, B. 1955)\, "EKHTILAL\," 2023\, Acrylic on paper\, 75 x 55 cm BASHAR KHALAF \n(Palestinian\, B. 1991) \n\nGOD\, MAKE THIS HOUSE SAFE (2023) \nCollage on paper \n75 x 55 cm\n DYALA MOSHTAHA \n(Palestinian\, B. 1997) \n\nFREEDOM IN BLOOM (2023) \nFineArt archival paper\, 310 gsm \n75 x 55 cm | Edition of 10 (+AP)\n HASSAN MANASRAH \n(Palestinian\, B. 1980) \n\nPALESTINIAN WOMAN (2023) \nFineArt archival paper\, 310 gsm \n75 x 55 cm | Edition of 10 (+AP)\n HAZEM HARB \n(Palestinian\, B. 1980) \n\nTHEY ARE NOW STEALING YOUR SKIN (2024) Charcoal on paper \n75 x 55 cm\n HOSNI RADWAN \n(Palestinian\, B. 1955) \n\nALL RIGHTS NOT RESERVED - GAZA (2023) FineArt archival paper\, 310 gsm \n75 x 55 cm | Edition of 10 (+AP)\n KHALED EL HABER \n(Labanese\, B. 1956) \n\nWE ARE DOING FINE IN GAZA... WHAT ABOUT YOU?! (2024) FineArt archival paper\, 310 gsm \n75 x 55 cm | Edition of 10 (+AP)\n MOHAMMED JOHA \n(Palestinian\, B. 1978) \n\nSLEEPLESS (2024) \nAcrylic on paper \n75 x 55 cm\n NABIL ANANI \n(Palestinian\, B. 1943) \n\nSTOP THE GENOCIDE (2023) \nMixed media on paper \n75 x 55 cm\n SLIMAN MANSOUR \n(Palestinian\, B. 1947) \n\nDISTORTION (2023) \nFineArt archival paper\, 310 gsm \n75 x 55 cm | Edition of 5 (+AP)\n TAYSEER BARAKAT \n(Palestinian\, B. 1959) \n\nUNTITLED (2023) \nAcrylic and mixed media on paper \n75 x 55 cm\n \nThis collection of artful posters\, originally from the Zawyeh Gallery of Ramallah and Dubai and never before exhibited in the UK\, appear with posters for Palestine hacked into London bus shelters by the anonymous activist group Protest Stencil; the stark infographic posters by the decolonizing collective Visualizing Palestine; and posters that pro-Palestinian protestors downloaded from the internet\, printed\, and carried on demonstrations. An opening night event will take place on May 23 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm\, £5 admission (more information here). \nA poster roundtable discussion will also take place on June 11 at P21 Gallery (6:30-8:30 pm)\, with Palestinian artist Vera Tamari\, Visualizing Palestine’s Aline Batarseh\, West Bank curator Nadine Aranki\, and Professor Dina Matar from SOAS Centre of Palestinian Studies\, will discuss art in Palestinian resistance and the political and aesthetic impact of Palestinian political posters. \nLearn more about this exhibition \nThe Art of the Palestinian Poster exhibition is part of the London-wide Shubbak: A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture festival. Shubbak Festival (meaning ‘window’ in Arabic) is Europe’s largest biennial celebration of contemporary Arab and SWANA (South West Asian & North African) arts and culture. Taking place from 23 May to 15 June 2025\, the festival will showcase bold\, innovative\, and culturally authentic works across visual arts\, film\, music\, theatre\, dance\, literature\, and debates—connecting audiences in London\, across the UK\, and beyond. \n  URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-exhibition-art-of-the-palestinian-poster-at-p21-gallery-shubbak-festival/ LOCATION:P21 Gallery\, 21-27 Chalton Street\, London\, NW1 1JD\, United Kingdom CATEGORIES:Art Exhibition ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/5.23-Art-of-the-Palestinian-Poster-Exhibition-Shubbak-Festival-1920-x-1080-px.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250525T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250525T200000 DTSTAMP:20260405T213613 CREATED:20250507T120458Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250511T160842Z UID:10000082-1748199600-1748203200@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses Zahran Alqasmi's "Honey Hunger" with translator Marilyn Booth DESCRIPTION:RSVP here to participate \nThis month\, join us online for a special discussion on Zahran Alqasmi’s “Honey Hunger” with translator Marilyn Booth. We meet online on Sunday\, May 25th at 1pm EST/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET. Moderated by TMR’s Managing Editor Rana Asfour. \n____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nAbout the book: \nA novel of longing\, uncertainty\, and ultimately of hope\, written by an International Prize for Arabic Fiction-winning author and an International Booker-prize winning translator. \nAzzan is a beekeeper in a rural community in Oman. Devoted to tending his bees and searching for wild hives\, he encounters Thamna\, a lone shepherd woman\, on a mountain slope and is captivated by her and her honey-colored eyes. \nZahran Alqasmi’s masterful novel thrums forward with a subtle momentum. His lucid\, poetic writing conveys a visceral sense of time and place\, of the fragile ecologies inhabited by both bees and humans alike\, in this intense and compelling novel of loss and hope. \nPublished by Hoopoe\, 2025. \n  \nAbout the author & translator:  \nZahran Alqasmi (Author) is an Omani poet and novelist\, born in the Sultanate of Oman in 1974. Honey Hunger was his third of four published novels\, and in 2023 he won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) for The Water Diviner. He has also published ten poetry collections and a collection of short stories. \nMarilyn Booth (Translated by) is professor emerita\, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Magdalen College\, Oxford University. She has translated many works of Arabic fiction into English. Her translations of Omani author Jokha Alharthi include Bitter Orange Tree and Celestial Bodies\, which was awarded the International Booker Prize. She has also translated Hoda Barakat\, Hassan Daoud\, Elias Khoury\, Latifa al-Zayyat\, and Nawal al-Saadawi. Her research publications focus on Arabophone women’s writing and the ideology of gender debates in the nineteenth century\, most recently The Career and Communities of Zaynab Fawwaz: Feminist Thinking in Fin-de-siècle Egypt. \n____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \nThis online event is free and open to the public. Registration is required. Donations are welcome to support The Markaz Review. \nRSVP here to participate URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-zahran-alqasmis-honey-hunger-with-translator-marilyn-booth/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Author Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/May-2025-Book-Club-Zoom-wide-banner-1.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250531T103000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250531T173000 DTSTAMP:20260405T213613 CREATED:20250523T173512Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250523T173512Z UID:10000085-1748687400-1748712600@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:The Markaz Review Workshop: Writing From the Center of the World DESCRIPTION:Whether you’re a seasoned or emerging writer\, join TMR’s daylong writing workshop that aims to inspire and empower writers to engage with the Middle East and the wider world through the lens of creative expression. During this event\, you will also get a chance to meet TMR’s editorial team\, including editor-in-chief Jordan Elgrably\, managing editor Rana Asfour\, and literary editor Malu Halasa. Learn about TMR’s mission to provide critical and creative perspectives on SWANA arts\, and discover how TMR has become a platform for the voices of Gaza\, queer fiction from the region\, and literary work that challenges and reshapes perceptions of and in the region. \nEvent highlights include an introduction to The Markaz Review (10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.)\, a workshop on critical writing and reviewing (12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.)\, a workshop on fiction and literary nonfiction (3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.)\, and a workshop on translation and publishing (4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.). Although the event is free\, booking is essential. \nLearn more about this event URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/the-markaz-review-workshop-writing-from-the-center-of-the-world/ LOCATION:Arab British Centre\, 1 Gough Square\, London\, EC4A 3DE\, United Kingdom CATEGORIES:Writing Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/5.31-The-Markaz-Review-Workshop-Writing-From-the-Center-of-the-World-website-banner.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250629T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250629T200000 DTSTAMP:20260405T213613 CREATED:20250610T122956Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250610T122956Z UID:10000086-1751223600-1751227200@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses Bothayna Al-Essa's "The Book Censor's Library\," translated by Sawad Hussain & Ranya Abdelrahman DESCRIPTION:RSVP here to participate \nJoin The Markaz Review’s Book Club on Sunday\, June 29th at 1pm EST/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET to dive into Bothayna Al-Essa’s “The Book Censor’s Library\,” translated by Sawad Hussain & Ranya Abdelrahman. Hosted by TMR’s Managing Editor\, Rana Asfour. \n\nAbout the book: \nA national book award finalist\, the novel is a reckoning with the global threat to free speech and the bleak future it all but guarantees. Bothayna Al-Essa marries the steely dystopia of Orwell’s 1984 with the madcap absurdity of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland\, resulting in a dreadful twist worthy of Kafka. The Guardian of Surfaces is a warning call and a love letter to stories and the delicious act of losing oneself in them. \nThe new book censor has not slept soundly in weeks. By day\, he combs through manuscripts at a government office\, looking for anything that would make a book unfit to publish-allusions to queerness\, unapproved religions\, any mention of life before the Revolution. By night\, pilfered novels pile up in the house he shares with his wife and daughter\, and the characters of literary classics crowd his dreams. As the siren song of forbidden reading continues to beckon\, he descends into a netherworld of resistance fighters\, undercover booksellers\, and outlaw librarians trying to save their history and culture. \nAbout the author & the translators: \nBothayna Al-Essa (author) is the bestselling Kuwaiti author of nearly a dozen novels and additional children’s books. She is also the founder of Takween\, a bookshop and publisher of critically acclaimed works. Her most recent book\, The Book Censor’s Library\, won the Sharjah Award for Creativity in the novel category in 2021 and is her third novel to appear in English\, after Lost in Mecca and All That I Want to Forget. Al-Essa was author-in-residence at the British Centre for Literary Translation for the summer of 2023\, and the recipient of Kuwait’s Nation Encouragement Award for her fiction in 2003 and 2012. She has written books on writing and led writing workshops throughout the Arab world. \nSawad Hussain is a translator from Arabic whose work in 2023 was shortlisted for The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation and the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation\, and longlisted for The Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing. She is a judge for the Palestine Book Awards and the Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation (2024 cycle). Her most recent translations include Edo’s Souls by Stella Gaitano (Dedalus Books)\, Djinn’s Apple by Djamila Morani (Neem Tree Press). \nRanya Abdelrahman is a translator of Arabic literature into English. After working for more than 16 years in the information technology industry\, she changed careers to pursue her interest in books\, promoting reading and translation. Abdelrahman has published translations in ArabLit Quarterly\, The Markaz Review\, and The Common\, and is the translator of Out of Time\, a short story collection by Palestinian author Samira Azzam. \n\nThis online event is open and free to the public. Registration is required. Donations are welcome to support The Markaz Review. \nRSVP here to participate URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-bothayna-al-essas-the-book-censors-library-translated-by-sawad-hussain-ranya-abdelrahman/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:TMR Book Club ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Zoom-wide-banner.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250727T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250727T200000 DTSTAMP:20260405T213613 CREATED:20250710T154848Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250710T155009Z UID:10000088-1753642800-1753646400@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses The Burning Heart of the World with author Nancy Kricorian DESCRIPTION:On Sunday\, July 27th TMR’s Book Club will meet to discuss The Burning Heart of the World with author Nancy Kricorian at 1pm EST/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET. Hosted by TMR Managing Editor Rana Asfour. \nSign up here to participate in the discussion. \n\nIn vivid\, poetic prose\, Nancy Kricorian’s The Burning Heart of the World tells the story of a Beirut Armenian family before\, during\, and after the Lebanese Civil War. Returning to the fabular tone of Zabelle\, her popular first novel\, Kricorian conjures up the lost worlds and intergenerational traumas that haunt a family in permanent exile. Leavened with humor and imbued with the timelessness of a folktale\, The Burning Heart of the World is a sweeping saga that takes readers on an epic journey from the mountains of Cilicia to contemporary New York City. \nAbout the author:\nNancy Kricorian is the author of the novels Zabelle\, Dreams of Bread and Fire\, and All The Light There Was\, focused on post-genocide Armenian diaspora life. She has taught at Barnard\, Columbia\, Yale\, and New York University\, as well as with Teacher & Writers Collaborative in the New York City Public Schools and for the Palestine Writing Workshop in Birzeit. She has been the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship\, a Gold Medal from the Writers Union of Armenia\, and the Anahid Literary Award. She lives in New York City. \nPublished by Red Hen Press\, 2025. \n\nThis online event is open and free to the public. Registration is required. Donations are welcome to support The Markaz Review. \nSign up here to participate in the discussion. URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-the-burning-heart-of-the-world-with-author-nancy-kricorian/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Author Events,TMR Book Club ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Zoom-wide-banner.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250928T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20250928T200000 DTSTAMP:20260405T213613 CREATED:20250825T102523Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250825T102523Z UID:10000089-1759086000-1759089600@themarkaz.org SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses Omar Khalifah's "Sand-Catcher" with special guests DESCRIPTION:Sign up to participate here \nJoin us on Sunday\, September 28th at 1pm EST/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET to discuss Omar Khalifah’s Sand-Catcher with special guests! \nAbout the book: \nA sardonic\, thrilling fable about collective memory and the many ways it can be saved or subverted. Omar Khalifa’s debut novel Sand-Catcher is at once a polyphonic satire and a tightly plotted tale of suspense. Walking the line between gallows humor\, rage\, and depthless heartbreak\, it is a unique reflection of contemporary Palestinian identity in all its facets. \nFour young\, Palestinian journalists at a Jordanian newspaper are tasked\, on account of their heritage\, with profiling one of the last living witnesses of the Nakba\, the violent expulsion of native Palestinians by the nascent state of Israel in 1948. Confident that the old man will be all too happy to go on record\, the reporters are nonplussed when they are repeatedly\, and obscenely\, rebuffed. This living witness to history\, this secular saint\, has no desire to be interviewed\, no desire for his memories to be preserved\, no desire to serve as an inspiration for the youth of tomorrow. What he wants is to be left alone. \nAs threats from the team’s editor-in-chief put more and more pressure on the journalists\, they must decide just how far they’re willing to go to get the old man on the record. After all\, what possible weight can one stubborn demand for privacy have when balanced against the imperative to bear witness? \nPublished by Coffee House Press\, 2024. \nAbout the author & translator:\nOmar Khalifah (author) is a novelist and short story writer in Arabic. His book\, Nasser in the Egyptian Imaginary\, was published in English by Edinburgh University Press in 2017. His collection Ka’annani Ana (As If I Were Myself) was published in Amman\, Jordan in 2010\, and his novel Qabid al-Raml (Sand-Catcher) was published in 2020. His articles have appeared in Middle East Critique and Journal of World Literature. A Fulbright scholar\, Khalifah is assistant professor of Arabic Literature and Culture at Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Qatar. \nBarbara Romaine is an academic and literary translator. She has published translations of five novels\, most recently Waiting for the Past (Syracuse University Press\, 2022)\, by the Iraqi novelist Hadiya Hussein. She has held two NEA fellowships in translation\, one of which was for her work on Radwa Ashour's Spectres (Interlink Books\, 2011). Spectres went on to place second in the 2011 Saif Ghobash-Banipal international translation competition. Romaine’s translations of essays\, short stories\, and classical poetry have appeared in a variety of literary periodicals. \nSign up to participate here URL:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-omar-khalifahs-sand-catcher-with-special-guests/ LOCATION:Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://themarkaz.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Zoom-wide-banner.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Markaz Review":MAILTO:info@themarkaz.org END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR