The Markaz Review Welcomes 2025-2026 Editorial Fellow, Translator and Writer Lara Vergnaud
MONTPELLIER, SEPT 2025 — Meet Lara Vergnaud, The Markaz Review’s new editorial Fellow, who will be based in our Montpellier office as of the 1st of September. Lara will ensure that TMR tracks Francophone Arab and other Middle Eastern writers, translating their work to English. She will also captain a new French-language book club, launching on the first Sunday of October, 10/5, with the novel Quatre Jours sans ma mère by Ramsès Kefi.
Lara was born in Tunisia, where she lived until the age of four. Next, after three years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, her family moved to the United States. A few decades and moves later — Lyon, New York City, Washington, D.C. — Lara has landed in the south of France where she lives with her husband and two children.
Lara’s early employment history includes a stint in journalism, reporting mainly on North Africa and the Middle East for an online news site. A lifelong lover of literature and language, Lara subsequently earned a Master of Arts in Literary Translation from New York University. As a French to English translator and editor for more than 10 years, Lara’s continued focus is on writing by authors of North African origin.
This focus stems from Lara’s familial connection to the region. As she notes, “I grew up hearing fantastical tales about my Tunisian family — which I still believe, by the way! — namely my grandfather’s adventurous, years-long trek from Saharan Algeria to northern Tunisia.” These tales instilled in Lara a lifelong curiosity and attachment to North Africa and a desire to bring French-language writing reflecting the Maghreb to an Anglophone audience.
Over the past decade, Lara has translated works by authors including Zahia Rahmani, Ahmed Bouanani, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, and Mohamed Leftah. She has been awarded the French-American Foundation Translation Prize and the French Voices Grand Prize; her translations have also been nominated for the National Book Award, the Dublin Literary Award, and the Republic of Consciousness Prize.
Also a writer, Lara has penned essays for publications including The Paris Review, Literary Hub, Words Without Borders, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Across her pursuits, a recurring theme is intersections. “When I was studying translation,” Lara explains, “I kept reading about literature at the margins, marginalized languages, marginalized voices, marginalized writers . . . I decided that I didn’t care for the term. Because the periphery depends on where you’re standing, right? I decided to focus on intersections instead. For example, Tunisia meets the United States. Algeria meets France. Senegal meets Morocco. How do these intersections, be they cultural, linguistic, or literary, manifest? And more importantly, how are they written and shared?”
As TMR’s first editorial fellow, Lara will continue to explore such intersections, collaborating with writers of French expression to translate and edit articles for the review. She will also write articles and book reviews for TMR and lead a monthly online book club.
Contact Natalie Jarudi for more information or to schedule an interview, natalie@themarkaz.org.
About The Markaz Review
The Markaz Review (TMR) is an independent, nonprofit literary and cultural journal founded in 2020. Published monthly online, TMR highlights original writing and art from across the SWANA region and the diaspora, with the aim of building bridges across communities and advancing freedom of expression. TMR editors have also curated the following titles: Woman Life Freedom: Voices and Art from the Women’s Protest in Iran (editor Malu Halasa, Saqi Books 2023); Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction (editor Jordan Elgrably, City Lights 2024); and Sumūd: A New Palestinian Reader (editors Malu Halasa and Jordan Elgrably, Seven Stories Press 2025). The Markaz Review is supported by the Open Society Foundation, the Hawthornden, and other foundations and donors.
