On American Democracy and Empire, a Corrective
The MAGA movement is not a cause but a consequence of GOP policies, and its instantaneous vanishing with Trump’s political demise is unlikely.
Remember 2020 Not for Covid-19 or Trump Chaos, But Climate Change
Columnist Iason Athanasiadis remembers 2020 not so much for the pandemic or the chaos of Trump but what humankind has wrought on nature.
Muhammad Malas, Syria’s Auteur, is the subject of a Film Biography
Rana Asfour reviews a documentary by Nezar Andary on the Syrian auteur filmmaker, Muhammad Malas.
The Howling of the Dog: Adania Shibli’s “Minor Detail”
Layla AlAmmar takes us into the heart of Adania Shibli’s literary thriller, where Palestinian lives are but a “minor detail.”
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.”
Calligraphies of the Desert
Maece Seirafi suggests, Calligraphies of the Desert “reveals an indigenous comfort with the desert as reflected in Arab proverbs heard in everyday conversations.”
Academics, Signatories, and Putschists
Kurdish poet and scholar Selîm Temo, takes us inside the continuing Academics for Peace struggle through his personal story.
Trembling Landscapes: Between Reality and Fiction: Eleven Artists from the Middle East*
Landscape is a charged notion in the Middle East—even the geographical term Middle East is not neutral, but Eurocentric and has its origin in colonialism. Co-curator Nat Muller explains.
The Mysteries of Translation in “Stranger Fictions”
Europe is the center of the world and has the literature to prove it. Or is it? Arabic and comparative literature scholar Rebecca C. Johnson makes a different argument in Stranger Fictions.
Freedom is femininity: Faraj Bayrakdar
18 years in the making, this winter Upset Press will publish a new volume of poems by former Syrian political prisoner and cause célèbre Faraj Bayrakdar.
You Drive Me Crazy, from “Bride of the Sea”
In this debut novel Eman Quotah practically delivers an epic as she writes about a Saudi family, torn between Arab and American identities and culture clashes.
Hassan Blasim’s “God 99”
God 99 blurs the boundaries between fiction and autobiography, reportage and the novel. It blends the fantastic with the everyday to explore themes of exile, humanity, art and philosophy.