THE MARKAZ REVIEW MARKS 5 YEARS WITH LANDMARK ANTHOLOGY, SHOWCASING VOICES FROM ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA AND THE DIASPORA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Best of The Markaz Review, 2020–2025 Celebrates Five Years of Independent SWANA Literature and Art
MONTPELLIER, SEPT. 2025 — The new book from The Markaz Review captures daily life in Gaza, Beirut, and Baghdad, among many other locales, exploring histories of struggle and resistance, highlighting artists and writers daring to imagine a better future. This landmark anthology is a showcase for cultures from the center of the world, a 7,000-kilometer expanse from Karachi to Casablanca.
“At The Markaz Review, we are part of a vast global community that loves freedom, literature, and the arts, and that abhors injustice,” said Jordan Elgrably, TMR’s editor-in-chief. “This book is a passport into an endlessly fascinating and enriching world — we hope readers will use it to travel freely and often.”
The review is an independent platform dedicated to publishing writers, artists, and translators from across Southwest Asia, North Africa (SWANA), and the diaspora, including Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Morocco and beyond.
The anthology reflects on five years of publishing poetry, fiction, essays, visual art, and reviews. Divided into six thematic sections—Home, War, Revolution & Refugees, Art, Memory, and Hope, contributors include such acclaimed and emerging voices as MK Harb, Ghassan Ghassan, Joumana Haddad, Iason Athanasidis, Mansoura Ez-Eldin, Fadi Zaghmout, Mai Al-Nakib and Nabil Salih, alongside the artwork of Mohamed Al Mufti and Sara Shamma, among others, and poets including Mona Kareem, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha and Najwan Darwish.
The Best of The Markaz Review is both a celebration of the publication’s first five years and a declaration of its ongoing mission: to champion authentic voices from the Middle East, North Africa, and diaspora communities, and to affirm that culture, literature, and human dignity matter.
Availability: The anthology is available online at themarkaz.org, and through major booksellers. ISBN 9791097862305.
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 SWANA 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.
Press Contact:
natalie@themarkaz.org
www.themarkaz.org
