Submissions

What are we looking for?

The Markaz Review aka TMR seeks essays, fea­ture arti­cles and reviews of books, film, music, the­atre and art, as well as profiles/interviews of artists, film­mak­ers, musi­cians and writ­ers (1,000–3,000 words). We’re inter­est­ed in cov­er­ing a world­wide array of visu­al, lit­er­ary and per­form­ing arts events, as well as cur­rent affairs. We also pub­lish opin­ion columns (750–1,500 words). Our style is seri­ous with­out being aca­d­e­m­ic. Our writ­ers care and are even pas­sion­ate on the sub­jects they cover.

What do we care about?

TMR is an inter­na­tion­al plat­form for cre­ative inquiry, crit­i­cism, per­for­mance and dia­logue that explores the arts, human­i­ties and cur­rent affairs. Rec­og­niz­ing that we live in a world frag­ment­ed by racism, gen­der dis­crim­i­na­tion, set­tler-colo­nial­ism, class and caste sys­tems, xeno­pho­bia and ori­en­tal­ism, we raise our voic­es for social jus­tice and human rights.

How does TMR publish?

Writ­ten or audio­vi­su­al con­tri­bu­tions appear either in TMR Week­ly, pub­lish­ing every Mon­day, or in our month­ly online mag­a­zine, a themed issue every 15th of the month. Sub­mis­sions range from 750 to 3,000 words, but please query with a one- or two-para­graph pitch, writ­ing to editor@themarkaz.org.

Call for Submissions: FIRE — an issue devoted to fire and climate change NOV 2021

As the plan­et heats up, rag­ing wild­fires have become more com­mon and dead­ly. From Cal­i­for­nia and Ore­gon to Greece, Alge­ria, Turkey and Aus­tralia, it often appears that cli­mate change is here and the world as we know it has already changed forever.

TMR seeks reflec­tive and insight­ful essays, reviews, his­tor­i­cal notes, art instal­la­tions, audio-visu­al work, pho­tog­ra­phy, music, fic­tion, poet­ry on fires lit­er­al or sym­bol­ic: protest fires, putting out fires, holy fires, rit­u­al fires, the arts of fire (glass, ceram­ics) from West Asia, North Africa and the dias­po­ras. Work can relate to fire in lit­er­al or fig­u­ra­tive terms. Dead­line to query: Oct. 30. Copy receipt dead­line: Nov. 10. Write editor@themarkaz.org

Call for Submissions: LAUGHTER مزح — DEC 2021

The Decem­ber issue of The Markaz Review will be devot­ed to laugh­ter and levity—to satire, irony, humor and the ludi­crous; to explor­ing, rep­re­sent­ing and offer­ing per­spec­tives on humor’s uses and forms, from his­tor­i­cal to con­tem­po­rary cul­tures. After a cou­ple of rough Covid years, not to men­tion cli­mate and human dis­as­ters every­where, we can all tru­ly use some fun and com­ic relief. Query us with your video clips, inter­views, car­i­ca­tures, polit­i­cal car­toons, art­work, pho­tog­ra­phy, short sto­ry, essay, or review pro­pos­al. Query dead­line is Decem­ber 1st; the dead­line for deliv­ery of con­tent is Decem­ber 10th. Query editor@themarkaz.org.

What’s been our track record?

Over the years, Lev­an­tine Cul­tur­al Center/Markaz flag­ship pro­grams have engaged com­mu­ni­ties to over­come ani­mos­i­ty and racism to learn about one anoth­er. They include Arabs, Blacks and Jews: The Art of Resis­tance (2005–2010); Free­dom The­atre West (2011–2014); Gaza Surf Relief (2007–2015); New Voic­es in Mid­dle East­ern Cin­e­ma (2010–2015); and the Sul­tans of Satire (2005–2017). Mean­while our Inside-Out­side Gallery (2009–2016) pre­sent­ed many group and solo art exhibits fea­tur­ing fine artists from across the Mid­dle East/North Africa and the Amer­i­can diaspora.

Contributor Honoraria

The Markaz Review (TMR) is a non-prof­it pub­li­ca­tion and out­growth of the erst­while Lev­an­tine Cul­tur­al Center/The Markaz in Los Ange­les. TMR offers con­trib­u­tors a mod­est hon­o­rar­i­um, but we’re not brag­ging. We look for­ward to grow­ing and sup­port­ing artists and writ­ers inas­much as possible.

What else would you like to know?

The Markaz Review will present online art gal­leries as well as live per­for­mances, short films, dis­cus­sion groups and presentations/Q & As with world experts. It will include a reg­u­lar pod­cast and online arts and lan­guage cours­es. The pri­ma­ry lan­guage of TMR is Eng­lish. All arti­cles also appear in French and Span­ish ver­sions. Ara­bic trans­la­tions will begin in 2021.