Poetry Against the State
Gil Anidjar reviews A Bibliography for After Jews and Arabs, and suggests that "our problem is that we have stopped listening to the poets."
The Imagination Interviews
The Short, Happy Life of Shirley Thompson
Novelist Preeta Samarasan believes that the greatest truths reside more often in fiction than in fact.
Two Poems for Truth by Ammiel Alcalay
Two new poems by Ammiel Alcalay, "Kashoggi or Kashog-ji?" and "Translation Theory", explore versions of the truth.
Allah and the American Dream
Rayyan Al-Shawaf reviews The Bad Muslim Discount, the second novel from Syed Masood, but isn't sure he likes its happy ending.
The Crash, Covid-19 and Other Iranian Stories
Malu Halasa reviews the new graphic novel by former political prisoner and editorial cartoonist Mana Neyestani, released in 2021 by IranWire.com.
Memory and the Assassination of Lokman Slim
Claire Launchbury writes of one man's long search for the truth about Lebanon's civil war, cut short by his mysterious murder this year.
On Literacy and the Lack Thereof
Marcus Gilroy-Ware, the author of After the Fact, The Truth About Fake News, warns that literacy and numeracy are on the wain.
The New Gatekeepers: How proprietary algorithms increasingly determine the news we see
Would you trust an algorithm to sell you a used car? Andy Lee Roth peers under the hood of Big Tech and finds plenty we should be worrying about.
Truth or Dare? Reinterpreting Al-Harīrī’s Arab Rogue
Farah Abdessamad reviews a new English translation of Impostures from Basra-born Al-Hariri that revives the "eloquent rogue" genre of classical Arabic literature.
Dinner at the White House, in the Lion’s Den
Francisco Letelier searches for the truth about his father's assassination in Washington DC while excavating US government complicity in its cover-up.
Secrets, Leaks, and the Imperative of Truth and Transparency
Stephen Rohde on how widespread government secrecy, alongside the punishment of truth-tellers, betrays fundamental principles underlying democracy.
Torture Is the Nasty Center of the 9/11 Case at Guantánamo
In our centerpiece this month, Lisa Hajjar takes us inside the war on terror and the dystopia that is Guantánamo.
Faïza Guène’s Fight for French Respectability
Melissa Chemam considers the sixth novel by France's former teen sensation Faïza Guène and whether she is now part of the literary canon.
In Yemen, Women are the Heroes
International aid worker and writer Farah Abdessamad has been traveling to Yemen for work since 2014. This is the first time she has written about her experiences there publicly.
Decolonizing Art for Art’s Sake
Culture critic and filmmaker Mara Ahmed deconstructs three versions of an opéra-ballet to get at the heart of western racism in mainstream dance performance.