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.
Cairo
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.
Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt’s Roaring 20s
Selma Dabbagh reviews the story of Egypt's pioneering women performers and feminists, including Oum Khoulthum and Munira al-Maydiyya.
Revolution in Art, a review of “Reflections” at the British Museum
Malu Halasa reviews a selection of the 170 Arab, Iranian and Turkish artists and artworks in the British Museum's contemporary Middle East collection.
Cairo 1941: Excerpt from “A Land Like You”
“Gamal was convinced that Egypt, mother of the world, would spawn a new era—when Arabs, the wretched of the earth, would finally regain their place among the nations.”
Egypt—Abandoned but not Forgotten
A Land Like You gives a palpable sense of a community that could not have imagined its own uprooting out of Egypt.