Exile, Music, Hope & Nostalgia Among Berlin’s Arab Immigrants
Cultural historian Diana Abbani meditates on music among Berlin's Arab immigrants.
Cairo
Poetry as a Form of Madness—Review of a Friendship
Youssef Rahka introduces us to his Egyptian friend Maged Zaher and his seventh volume of poetry, composed in English.
Alaa Abd El-Fattah—the Revolutionary el-Sissi Fears Most?
Fouad Mami on hunger striker Alaa Abd El-Fattah's new book, "You Have Not Yet Been Defeated."
Traps and Shadows in Noor Naga’s Egypt Novel
Ahmed Naji reviews "If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English" just out from Graywolf.
“The Suffering Mother of the Whole World”—a story by Amany Kamal Eldin
A wayward daughter leaves Boston to spend a summer back home in Cairo, where she observes the decline of her once prominent family.
Siena and Her Art Soothe a Writer’s Grieving Soul
Rana Asfour reviews Libyan-American author Hisham Matar's memoir of his time in Siena, Italy.
Mohamed Metwalli’s “A Song by the Aegean Sea” Reviewed
Sherine Elbanhawy finds that Mohamed Metwalli’s newly-translated poetry collection is the perfect form of escapism.
Mapping an Escape from Cairo’s Hyperreality through informal Instagram archives
Even as the despotic rulers of post-revolution Egypt attempt to remake greater Cairo, hoping to gloss over the regime's dismal human rights record, one writer sees through the smoke and mirrors.
“Turkish Delights”—fiction from Omar Foda
Omar Foda draws on family lore and field work to weave together a satirical tale of ego and power in 1920s Egypt.
Sudden Journeys: The Villa Salameh Bequest
Jenine Abboushi inaugurates a new monthly column with a story about a prominent family that lost everything in Palestine.
The Complexity of Belonging: Reflections of a Female Copt
Nevine Abraham Growing up in Shoubra, one of the most populated Christian suburbs of Cairo, I met all my Muslim friends at a French Catholic school, which they and… Continue reading The Complexity of Belonging: Reflections of a Female Copt
Shelf Life: The Irreverent Nadia Wassef
For a brutally honest look at what it’s been like to run a business and raise a family in Cairo these past twenty years, read Diwan’s founder Nadia Wassef’s “Shelf Life” How a labor of love consumes, challenges and fills her life with questions whose answers are often on the…
Reading Egypt from the Outside In, Youssef Rakha’s “Baraa and Zaman”
Baraa and Zaman: Reading Egyptian Modernity in Shadi Abdel Salam’s The Mummy , by Youssef Rakha Palgrave 2020 ISBN 9783030613532 Sherifa Zuhur Baraa and Zaman: Reading Egyptian Modernity in Shadi… Continue reading Reading Egypt from the Outside In, Youssef Rakha’s “Baraa and Zaman”
Egypt Dreams of Revolution, a Review of “Slipping”
Mohamed Kheir’s oneiric novel takes readers on a journey around Egypt after the failed Arab Spring.
Making a Film in Gaza
The screenwriter and would-be director of "Gaza Airport" recounts her struggle to make a feature film in Gaza.