Saeed Taji Farouky: “Strange Cities Are Familiar”
The filmmaker behind "Tell Spring Not to Come This Year" and "A Thousand Fires" journeys with Mohammad Bakri to find home.
Beirut
Dima Mikhayel Matta: “This Text Is a Very Lonely Document”
A bold excerpt from the new Saqi anthology, "This Arab is Queer," in which a non-binary person from Lebanon explores solitude and family.
“The Salamander”—fiction from Sarah AlKahly-Mills
In this magical tale set in Lebanon and on a mysterious Mediterranean island, people dream of escape while a biologist seeks an elusive salamander.
Film Review: “Memory Box” on Lebanon Merges Art & Cinema
Arie Akkersmans-Amaya reviews the latest film by Lebanese artist duo Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, whom he interviews.
Fairouz is the Voice of Lebanon, Symbol of Hope in a Weary Land
For April's column, music critic Melissa Chemam looks longingly at the legend of Lebanon's diva.
Joumana Haddad’s “The Book of Queens”: a Review
Laila Halaby on the new novel from Lebanon's multilingual feminist poet and powerhouse.
Ghosts of Beirut: a Review of “displaced”
Karén Jallatyan reviews the book of Beirut's Armenian community with photography by Ara Oshagan and an essay by Krikor Beledian.
Music in the Middle East: Bring Back Peace
Our music columnist Melissa Chemam, disturbed by the war in Ukraine, makes the link between Odesa and Beirut via DJ Sama' Abdulhadi.
Three Poems of Love and Desire by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Three poems of love and desire, composed in Beirut during the darkest days of the civil war, and war within war, by exiled Syrian poet Nouri al-Jarrah.
Fiction from “Free Fall”: I fled the city as a murderer whose crime had just been uncovered
TMR presents an exclusive excerpt from Abeer Esber's fourth novel, translated here by Nouha Homad, about a Damascene woman on the run, hiding out in Dubai.
Sudden Journeys: From Munich with Love and Realpolitik
A family tragedy (we all have them), powerful forms of devotion and love, and a common political approach to “defeated peoples” in the world—all revisited over a weekend in Munich.
Lebanon at the Point of Drowning in Its Own…
Young Lebanese comic writer-illustrator duo Raja Abu Kasm and Rahil Mohsin convey what they think of corruption and their disintegrating country.
How to Hide in Lebanon as a Western Foreigner
Translators Nadiyah Abdullatif and Anam Zafar bring us Lena Merhej's classic graphic novel on Merhej’s mother’s journey from West to East, and how as a German, she adapted to life in Lebanon.
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.
Electronic Music in Riyadh?
Music journalist Melissa Chemam turns in the first column as part of a new monthly series in which she'll explore icons of Arab music and how they influence music production around the world.