The ghostly presence of the Nakba casts an ominous shadow over this newly translated novel by a former Palestinian prisoner.
15 MAY 2026 • By Francesca Vawdrey
In this ode of sorts, a Lebanese writer wonders: how can love for Palestine, and yearning, still puzzle others?
15 MAY 2026 • By Amal Ghandour
An otherwise daring stage production falters when it comes to depictions — clichéd and outdated — of the Gulf.
15 MAY 2026 • By Georgina Van Welie
This gothic short story is set on the island of Unguja in Tanzania, where an idyllic house hides something darker.
8 MAY 2026 • By Rebecca Lloyd
In a house shaped by war, a child’s question about a mysterious plant opens onto something far more dangerous.
8 MAY 2026 • By Erfan Mojib
The relationship between a lonely man and his eccentric cleaner blurs into something more intimate and ambiguous.
8 MAY 2026 • By Nur Turkmani
In Algeria, singer-songwriter Amel Zen and the group Iwal write and perform in their indigenous Dahri and Chaoui.
24 APRIL 2026 • By Sana Herireche
In her biweekly column, following Israel's Black Wednesday massacres, Amal Ghandour mulls the future of Lebanon.
24 APRIL 2026 • By Amal Ghandour
For this final iteration of the column before it goes on hiatus, Souseh writes a letter to herself.
24 APRIL 2026 • By Lina Mounzer
Six years into Lebanon’s collapse, Beirut’s cultural centers struggle to cope with an unprecedented displacement crisis.
17 APRIL 2026 • By Jim Quilty
At a Berlin residency, a Gazan writer finds unexpected kinship among women bound by cross-border grief.
17 APRIL 2026 • By Alaa Alqaisi
Sarah Leah Whitson and Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man offer an idealistic framework to break the stalemate in Palestine.
17 APRIL 2026 • By Mya Guarnieri
TMR asked writers and artists what motivation can remain, in times of war, to write or create art? More troubling still, is there any point?
10 APRIL 2026 • By TMR
Amal Ghandour takes the measure of Israel's assaults on Lebanon in the present ceasefire.
10 APRIL 2026 • By Amal Ghandour
Rather than offer a linear retelling of Lebanon’s history, the film draws our attention to the internal rhymes and rhythms of collective memory.
10 APRIL 2026 • By Darío Karim Pomar Azar
Why does the U.S. continue funding Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, even in the face of international condemnation?
3 APRIL 2026 • By Jason Hickel
The civilizational supremacy of the West is under threat, insisted U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a speech in Munich.
3 APRIL 2026 • By Ayça Çubukçu
A writer imagines Iran one year in the future, after the bombs have stopped falling, and the resulting political and social landscape.
3 APRIL 2026 • By Shahram Khosravi
No one in Lebanon is ever out of the fray, not even those who are very far away from burning neighborhoods and landscapes.
27 MARCH 2026 • By Amal Ghandour
This month, Souseh answers two letters from readers distressed by the outbreak of war, and notably the cognitive dissonance that results.
27 MARCH 2026 • By Lina Mounzer
An unorthodox family forged by crisis, three African women living together in Tunis, shelters a young shipwreck survivor.
27 MARCH 2026 • By Karim Goury
The protagonist is a complete individual, but also a product of forces that have shaped and exiled many Palestinians.
20 MARCH 2026 • By Eman Quotah
Iranians emerging from the rubble of war have their own struggle ahead. But the lessons travel: resistance has to be preserved.
20 MARCH 2026 • By Nojang Khatami
Loubna Mrie's memoir of personal rebellion and political awakening unfurls in Syria before, during and after the revolution.
20 MARCH 2026 • By Anna Lekas Miller
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming battlegrounds, and is at the heart of many international assassinations.
13 MARCH 2026 • By Iason Athanasiadis
Iranian authors recommend books that transcend hostile, longstanding narratives and misrepresentations of Iran.
13 MARCH 2026 • By Salar Abdoh, Azadeh Moaveni, Kamin Mohammadi
Perpetually attacked by Israel as an easy target and neighbor, Lebanon is bearing the brunt of many bombs in today's war.
13 MARCH 2026 • By Amal Ghandour
Our senior editor writes from Beirut as Israeli warplanes and drones search for new targets across the city.
13 MARCH 2026 • By Lina Mounzer
A new Palestinian drama set in 1948, 1978, 1988, and 2022 sets aside Zionist myths and recognizes historical injustices.
5 MARCH 2026 • By Jordan Elgrably
After years of searching, an exiled Afghan journalist encounters a beloved poet with whom she shares the loss of country.
27 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Freshta Jalalzai
In anticipation of TMR 58 • MOTHER TONGUE, this new poem explores the painful self-silencing of a language.
27 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Shahé Mankerian
In the latest This Arab Life column, Amal Ghandour ponders: who does a life actually belong to once you (or they) are dead?
27 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Amal Ghandour
Our reviewer examines the Arab melancholy at the heart of Saleem Haddad’s second novel.
20 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Layla AlAmmar
Many women and men long to raise children of their own, but is it primordial to be a biological parent?
20 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Lina Mounzer
A new anthology from Saqi Books explores LGBTQ+ Arabs and their families from ten points of view.
20 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Zein Murib
For Avi Shlaim and Gilbert Achcar, the genocide in Gaza is a turning point, one from which there is no return.
13 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Rebecca Ruth Gould
Art Basel's debut in the SWANA region is more than a marketplace; it is a catalyst for Qatar's cultural vision.
13 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
In a world where justice and law reliably fail us, it might be literature that holds the better promise of redemption.
13 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Amal Ghandour
In this tragicomic debut novel, a queer Palestinian refugee prepares to come out during his extravagant birthday dinner party.
6 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Ziyad Saadi
Hasan Hadi delivers a remarkable neorealist fable about childhood, obedience, and survival under dictatorship.
6 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Alex Demyanenko
Lena El-Malak’s Stolen Nation is a robust examination of a neglected aspect of the Palestinian “question": reparations.
6 FEBRUARY 2026 • By Selma Dabbagh
These on-the-ground notes from Iran reject oversimplification and one-sided narratives: "There is layer upon layer."
23 JANUARY 2026 • By M. Nateqnuri
Women's bodies have always been policed but Souseh reminds us that we don't have to buy into the narrative.
23 JANUARY 2026 • By Lina Mounzer
Despite its strong performances and scenography, Rajiv Joseph's play remains a western telling of the Iraq War.
23 JANUARY 2026 • By Nazli Tarzi
Neshat’s work reminds us that Iran has always contained multitudes: radical artists, secular thinkers, feminists, modernists.
16 JANUARY 2026 • By Hassan Abdulrazzak
Author Ammiel Alcalay defies categorization in his latest book (in fact four), producing a work that is both timely and timeless.
16 JANUARY 2026 • By Lina Mounzer
In this dissection of Trumpian spectacle, TMR columnist Amal Ghandour digs into the root (evil) of Empire.
16 JANUARY 2026 • By Amal Ghandour
Ironically, one of India’s most famous modern painters, M.F. Husain, died outside India, as a citizen of Qatar.
9 JANUARY 2026 • By Jacob Wirtschafter
Books featuring those Edward Said called marginals: exiles, expatriates, outcasts, rebels, the dispossessed...
9 JANUARY 2026 • By Zia Ahmed
Provoking the Territory subverts readers' expectations as it reveals how an architect was shaped by Beirut.
9 JANUARY 2026 • By Bridget Peak
Bakri's life and roles unfolded as a powerful kind of metatheatre, elevating him to the status of a national hero.
2 JANUARY 2026 • By Hadani Ditmars
With the Ghassaniya, a renovated theatre in Homs, a devastated Syrian community continues to rebuild after years of civil war.
2 JANUARY 2026 • By Iason Athanasiadis
In two recent developments, Amal Ghandour sees a comical comeuppance and hints of change on the political horizon.
2 JANUARY 2026 • By Amal Ghandour
In this Christmas story, we encounter an unexpected family gathering, consisting of two cast-off sons and two repentant mothers.
19 DECEMBER 2025 • By Ioanna Karystiani
James Baldwin's Turkish exile, a lesser-told chapter in his life, offered safety, privacy, and most importantly, a creative rebirth.
19 DECEMBER 2025 • By Öykü Tekten
Amal Ghandour reflects on a 2025 rich with tragedy, disappointment, and political smoke and mirrors.
19 DECEMBER 2025 • By Amal Ghandour
The Voice of Hind Rajab turns one child’s plea from Gaza into a stark reflection on empathy, bureaucracy, and the horrors of war.
19 DECEMBER 2025 • By Alex Demyanenko
Since the '60s, Nevhiz's art has ranged from depictions of systemic violence against Turkey’s left to intimate explorations of existential turmoil.
12 DECEMBER 2025 • By Selin Tamtekin
Alex Demyanenko argues there is a better film trying to break free — the urgency is real, even when the vehicle falls short.
12 DECEMBER 2025 • By Alex Demyanenko
The Marrakesh African Book Festival (FLAM) challenges a western-focused discourse, foregrounding African writers.
12 DECEMBER 2025 • By Lulu Norman
In her column, Amal Ghandour ruminates on Lebanese poet Nadia Tueni and the director who filmed her, Maroun Baghdadi.
5 DECEMBER 2025 • By Amal Ghandour
In this prize-winning documentary from Iran, resistance is not a single victory, but a long and grueling journey.
28 NOVEMBER 2025 • By Alex Demyanenko
Through her photos, Silva reveals the extent of the violence dealt by deep, historic fractures in Palestinian land.
28 NOVEMBER 2025 • By Jelena Sofronijevic
Omar Zahzah demonstrates how Big Tech and social media platforms threaten freedoms and promote violent interests.
28 NOVEMBER 2025 • By Maura Finkelstein
Ten years after her death, the legacy of Moroccan sociologist, feminist, and postcolonial thinker Fatima Mernissi is alive.
21 NOVEMBER 2025 • By Claudia Mende
In her biweekly column, Amal Ghandour calls out the failures of the Lebanese state and its complacent citizens.
21 NOVEMBER 2025 • By Amal Ghandour
Between old friends with widely divergent destinies, how does one break up, and when is the right time to end the relationship?
21 NOVEMBER 2025 • By Lina Mounzer
An interview with former prisoner and Kurdish poet İlhan Sami Çomak, on the eve of the Day of the Imprisoned Writer.
14 NOVEMBER 2025 • By Öykü Tekten
Amidst a society in turmoil, and the city's mayor in jail, the 18th Istanbul Biennial resonates with the disquiet in the land.
14 NOVEMBER 2025 • By Nat Muller
Kurdish writer Agri Ismaïl’s debut novel is nothing short of a literary miracle, suggests reviewer Aryan Omar Hassan.
14 NOVEMBER 2025 • By Aryan Omar Hassan
A new book highlights how Kurdish female and non-binary writers challenge norms and push boundaries.
14 NOVEMBER 2025 • By Matt Broomfield
Thinking about icons past and present, Amal Ghandour remembers Egypt's "Star of the East" on the 50th anniversary of her death.
7 NOVEMBER 2025 • By Amal Ghandour
To understand Palestine, argues writer-director Annemarie Jacir, you have to go back to the first decades of the 20th century.
31 OCTOBER 2025 • By Hadani Ditmars
Annemarie Jacir’s new film is big-tent entertainment, accented by a critical history of Anglo-Zionist collusion between the wars.
31 OCTOBER 2025 • By Jim Quilty
Online panel discussions, films, exhibitions, books and more … TMR World Picks span the gamut.
31 OCTOBER 2025 • By TMR
"Sudan Retold," co-curated by Albaih and Fuhrmann, opened at Alhosh Gallery in Doha, focusing on wartime cultural definitions.
24 OCTOBER 2025 • By Jacob Wirtschafter
Respite, please, from genocide and famine in Gaza, but not from torment and heartbreak. Respite, please, for whatever it’s worth.
24 OCTOBER 2025 • By Amal Ghandour
Forbidden or taboo love? In a world where we live free, how could such stymied conventions continue to exist?
24 OCTOBER 2025 • By Lina Mounzer
In Egypt where nationalist anthems are weaponized and satire becomes grounds for persecution, Taraddud stands as an act of survival.
17 OCTOBER 2025 • By Salma Harland
Bombed streets and Palestinian suffering contrast with Orwell’s language, showing how terms like “security operations” sanitize violence.
17 OCTOBER 2025 • By Alex Demyanenko
Tamara Stepanyan’s latest documentary, My Armenian Phantoms, interweaves film history with an intimate coming-of-age story.
17 OCTOBER 2025 • By Jim Quilty
In the Global South, abstraction connects with modernism and evades censorship. Could it be a powerful way to explore deep time and memory?
10 OCTOBER 2025 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
An artist is unable to go on with life and work as usual, while Israelis are committed to a campaign of murder and mayhem against Palestinians.
10 OCTOBER 2025 • By Myriam Cohenca
Two years into the crushing genocide in Gaza, Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi recalls her displacements and the significance of writing for her people.
10 OCTOBER 2025 • By Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi
Amal Ghandour helps parse these Orwellian times from the perspective of an Arab writer living between Beirut, Amman and the west.
10 OCTOBER 2025 • By Amal Ghandour
Markaz Review editors share news of upcoming talks, film screenings, exhibitions, books, art and more.
3 OCTOBER 2025 • By TMR
Winner of the 2025 Azhar Writing Prize — A foreign correspondent confronts devastation and violence before crossing a line of no return.
26 SEPTEMBER 2025 • By Hussain A. Ayoub
A woman living in the capital of the United States during fascism and genocide nonetheless yearns for a progressive partner.
26 SEPTEMBER 2025 • By Lina Mounzer
“Diba’s House” is a fictional retelling of events in Wadi Salib in Palestine and won Second Place in the 2025 Azhar Writing Prize.
26 SEPTEMBER 2025 • By Sara Masry
At Brian Eno’s concert, 150 artists and 12,500 attendees raised funds for Gaza and called for sanctions against Israel.
19 SEPTEMBER 2025 • By TMR
Six years after the Hirak mass protest movement in Algeria in 2019, an atmosphere of fear and silence continues to loom over the country.
19 SEPTEMBER 2025 • By Ilhem Rachidi
A new book examines the history of colonization and the ongoing parallels between the conflicts in Artsakh and the Gaza Strip.
19 SEPTEMBER 2025 • By Gabriel Polley
Iran attempts to woo a weary populace with exhibitions, billboards, and even promises that past transgressions can be forgotten and forgiven.
12 SEPTEMBER 2025 • By Raha Nik-Andish
The Orchards of Basra weaves together elements of dreams, memory, and forgotten philosophy, insisting that some stories cannot be silenced.
12 SEPTEMBER 2025 • By Jacob Wirtschafter
New SWANA films respond to genocide and starvation while urging viewers to act beyond passive consumption of the big screen.
12 SEPTEMBER 2025 • By Yassin El-Moudden
Literary conversations, films, exhibitions, concerts and several new recommended books for September to add to your reading list.
29 AUGUST 2025 • By TMR
The new feature from the Nasser brothers takes place in the context of Gaza's siege, but well before the present-day genocide.
29 AUGUST 2025 • By Karim Goury
Maps are narratives of the past, present, and future, powerful chronicles of presence and absence, ownership and theft, truth and lies.
29 AUGUST 2025 • By Mai Al-Nakib
Palestinian embroidery is dynamic, and artists, designers, and makers are constantly finding new ways to innovate and reinterpret it.
22 AUGUST 2025 • By Joanna Barakat
How do you practice self-acceptance the next time your mother admonishes you over a cookie or your body in general?
22 AUGUST 2025 • By Lina Mounzer
Shady Lewis' new novel skewers British bureaucracy while exploring the immigrant experience with black humor and surreal situations.
15 AUGUST 2025 • By Valeria Berghinz
Arabic, France’s second-most spoken language, was featured at this year’s Avignon Festival, but is Arabic still the outsider's tongue?
15 AUGUST 2025 • By Georgina Van Welie![Ali Cherri’s show at Marseille’s [mac] Is Watching You](https://themarkaz.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Ali-Cherri-22Les-Veilleurs22-at-the-mac-Musee-dart-contemporain-de-Marseille-photo-Gregoire-Edouard-Ville-de-Marseille.jpg)
Ali Cherri’s Marseille show, on view until January 4, 2026, deconstructs the museum from the inside out.
15 AUGUST 2025 • By Naima Morelli
The long history of Egyptian women's activism created the intellectual and political background for revolution.
8 AUGUST 2025 • By Jasmin Attia
A novel that explores taboo subjects with exceptional craftsmanship, while reconstructing the “self” from pain and fragmented identities.
8 AUGUST 2025 • By Ahmed Naji
A look at Ziad Rahbani's life and legacy, and the man who first introduced him to the jazz sound that transformed Lebanon's musical landscape.
8 AUGUST 2025 • By Diran Mardirian
A conversation with Mohammad Kassem, co-curator of the Kuwait Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.
1 AUGUST 2025 • By Georgina Van Welie
A writer in Gaza reports on the consequences of Israel's blocking humanitarian aid and medicines from entering the besieged territory.
1 AUGUST 2025 • By Asem Al Jerjawi
As planet temperatures rise, architects in the Middle East eschew Western fixes and revitalize local solutions.
1 AUGUST 2025 • By Iason Athanasiadis
In Gaza, where airstrikes define life, two lovers still find a way to connect in a landscape scarred by shrapnel and scattered steel.
25 JULY 2025 • By Husam Maarouf
Literary conversations, films, exhibitions, and concerts … TMR World Picks run the gamut…
25 JULY 2025 • By TMR
What do you do when an old friend continues to disappoint, when it comes to the matter of the genocide in Gaza?
25 JULY 2025 • By Lina Mounzer
A reflection on the moral complexity of art during genocide and grief, highlighting the healing power of poetry, music, and shared humanity.
18 JULY 2025 • By Yahia Lababidi
A magical realism short story exploring the horrific daily experiences of the Palestinian people and the radicalizing influence of violence.
18 JULY 2025 • By Richie Billing
Bosnian-American artist Šehović marks the Srebrenica Genocide with an installation of cups filled with coffee — unsweetened and undrunk.
18 JULY 2025 • By Claudia Mende
When one poet declines to participate on the international stage in Edinburgh, supporters of Palestinian human rights are in a quandary.
18 JULY 2025 • By Jordan Elgrably
Matt Broomfield's new book explores the history of the Rojava revolution in Syrian Kurdistan as a model for global liberation movements.
11 JULY 2025 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Aaron Bushnell, the U.S. serviceman who self-immolated to protest the genocide in Gaza, has become a modern Palestinian martyr.
11 JULY 2025 • By Hadani Ditmars
Gurnah's new novel, "Theft," is a post-colonial exploration of Tanzania, immigration, and the relationship between Africa and the west.
9 JULY 2025 • By Philip Grant
A writer in Tehran surveys the wreckage after 12 days of missiles, bombs and rhetoric flying between Israel and Iran.
27 JUNE 2025 • By Amir
Defying a pervasive climate of self-censorship in Turkey, Kurdish artist Ateş Alpar grapples with cultural assimilation, historical erasure and methods of state control.
27 JUNE 2025 • By Jennifer Hattam
Literary conversations, films, exhibitions, and concerts … TMR World Picks run the gamut …
27 JUNE 2025 • By TMR
A writer-artist sits in a café in Tehran with a failing internet connection, risking life and limb to send his observations to TMR.
20 JUNE 2025 • By Amir
Somewhere in Tehran, a child feels the same incomprehensible terror as foreign missiles fall, just as the writer once did in Baghdad.
20 JUNE 2025 • By Hassan Abdulrazzak
Souseh counsels hope and continued resistance to an anxious mother worried about her kids in dangerous times.
20 JUNE 2025 • By Lina Mounzer
A photo festival backed by a real estate developer puts the spotlight on Cairo's Downtown under transformation.
13 JUNE 2025 • By Iason Athanasiadis
Exiled Palestinian Mahdi Fleifel’s fiction debut "To a Land Unknown" provides a masterful bookend to his documentary on growing up in Ain el-Hilweh.
13 JUNE 2025 • By Jim Quilty
A Gaza writer's creative, hopeful sister struggles to get her degree and build a family in the midst of a grinding war.
30 MAY 2025 • By Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi
Nejmeh Khalil Habib's latest teaches us that while there are and will always be survivors of horrors, the trauma is never forgotten.
30 MAY 2025 • By Rebecca Ruth Gould
Film & photography festivals, concerts, art, standup comedy, lectures, new books...TMR World Picks run the gamut...
30 MAY 2025 • By TMR
A review of how some of history’s greatest civilizations' collapse presents ominous parallels with our present predicament.
23 MAY 2025 • By Iason Athanasiadis
The curator of the "Art of the Palestinian Poster" exhibition interviews two documentarians on their film "A Bunch of Questions With No Answers."
23 MAY 2025 • By Malu Halasa
Souseh answers a letter from a reader wondering how to handle her younger sister, who is enamored of conspiracy theories.
23 MAY 2025 • By Lina Mounzer
Since October 7, Palestinian women in the West Bank have experienced increasing intimidation, imprisonment and violence.
16 MAY 2025 • By Lynzy Billing
Embattled Algerian-French author Kamel Daoud won France’s most prestigious literary prize for a story he is accused of stealing.
16 MAY 2025 • By Lara Vergnaud
Filmmaker Ghassan Salhab presents an immersive study of Lebanese youth, the silent isolation of mortality, and resistance.
16 MAY 2025 • By Jim Quilty
May 15, 2025 is the 77th commemoration of the Nakba, the day in 1948 that Palestinians suffered their worst catastrophe up to that time.
15 MAY 2025 • By TMR
This anthology, while celebrating last year's best literary translations, aims to highlight writing from and about a world in crisis.
9 MAY 2025 • By Lara Vergnaud
Poet and essayist Mosab Abu Toha who grew up in Gaza under the bombs has won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
9 MAY 2025 • By Jordan Elgrably
Djinns emerge in a fractured home in Istanbul, reflecting the intercultural and intergenerational tensions in Fatma Aydemir’s family saga.
9 MAY 2025 • By Elena Pare
Anna Badkhen argues that the moral bankruptcy of American intellectuals…will only kick us down the hole deeper, faster.
2 MAY 2025 • By Anna Badkhen
Laila Abdalla, a young Egyptian journalist transplanted to Germany, sizes up the rightward drift of the country.
25 APRIL 2025 • By Laila Abdalla
Hassan Blasim’s work is not imitation. His is a voice forged in exile, and steeped in the paradoxes of displacement.
25 APRIL 2025 • By Hassan Abdulrazzak
Film and writers’ festivals, concerts, art, standup comedy, lectures, new books, art residencies, and writing workshops.
25 APRIL 2025 • By TMR
In post-regime Syria, forgiveness is not resolution—it’s a quiet demand for justice in the language of art.
18 APRIL 2025 • By Robert Bociaga
A story of a self-estranged gay adolescent navigating his identity as an Armenian in Iran and later as an immigrant in America.
18 APRIL 2025 • By Sean Casey
The new Lebanese performance, "Four Walls and a Roof," uses trial testimony, humor, and Eisler-Brecht songs to address the rise of the right.
11 APRIL 2025 • By Malu Halasa
"Suspended Disbelief" interrogates the tension between belief and doubt in the folklore and collective psyche of the Mediterranean region.
11 APRIL 2025 • By Marta Mendes
An advice column that tackles personal questions inflected by our greater social, cultural, political, and historical contexts.
4 APRIL 2025 • By Lina Mounzer
The Egyptian author of an epistolary novel — his first in English — meditates on whether his work will join the canon of world literature.
4 APRIL 2025 • By Youssef Rakha
An inspiring collection of remarkable titles to mark Arab American Heritage Month in the US, showcasing vibrant culture and a rich history.
4 APRIL 2025 • By Rana Asfour, Jordan Elgrably
Three documentaries screened in Thessaloniki shed light on conflicts often absent from international media headlines.
28 MARCH 2025 • By Iason Athanasiadis
Film & photography festivals, concerts, art, standup comedy, lectures, new books...TMR World Picks run the gamut...
28 MARCH 2025 • By TMR
An NYU professor who has frequently taught this Iraqi novel finds that two months into Trump 2.0, its significance has shifted considerably.
21 MARCH 2025 • By Deborah Williams
Gréki’s poetry expresses her deep love for Algeria while also serving as a powerful tribute to resistance against colonialism.
21 MARCH 2025 • By Jordan Elgrably
Two new books reissue the writings of the heralded revolutionary, Ghassan Kanafani. Required reading for today.
14 MARCH 2025 • By Farah-Silvana Kanaan
Yale scholar of Arabic language and literature Jonas Elbousty talks to one of the most prolific translators of the Arabic novel of the past 50 years.
14 MARCH 2025 • By Jonas Elbousty
Technology, rational division of labor, and deference to authority enabled ordinary people to contribute to acts of mass extermination in Gaza.
28 FEBRUARY 2025 • By Selma Dabbagh
In his new book, Peter Beinart proposes a single state solution that would balance equality for all Israeli and Palestinian citizens within it.
28 FEBRUARY 2025 • By David N. Myers
Film & photography festivals, concerts, art, standup comedy, lectures, new books...TMR World Picks run the gamut...
28 FEBRUARY 2025 • By TMR
Jim Quilty interviews Paris-based Gazan artist Taysir Batniji in Beirut about his new show, "Just in Case" at Sfeir-Semler Gallery, on through March 25.
21 FEBRUARY 2025 • By Jim Quilty
The poetry of Najwan Darwish is “at once anti-nationalist yet profoundly and personally invested in the Palestinian cause."
21 FEBRUARY 2025 • By Eman Quotah
What two new books from Omar El Akkad and Mohammed El-Kurd tell us about the war on the Palestinian people.
14 FEBRUARY 2025 • By Rebecca Ruth Gould
Gaza was meant from the start of the genocide to be bombed into rubble, to be made uninhabitable and to be depopulated of the Palestinians.
14 FEBRUARY 2025 • By Chris Hedges
Celebrity Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan presents stories and recipes from his long experience cooking in Bethlehem and beyond.
31 JANUARY 2025 • By Fadi Kattan
Natasha Tynes reviews a Palestinian novel that thoughtfully examines intergenerational trauma, making it an insightful and worthwhile read.
31 JANUARY 2025 • By Natasha Tynes
Filmmaker Yasmin Fedda and arts activist Daniel Gorman share their reflections of a three-day visit to Syria early this year.
24 JANUARY 2025 • By Yasmin Fedda, Daniel Gorman
Alex Tan reviews the new chronology of poems from Lebanon's bard of war and exile, Wadih Saadeh, translated by Robin Moger.
24 JANUARY 2025 • By Alex Tan
Film & photography festivals, concerts, art, standup comedy, lectures...TMR World Picks run the gamut and are selected by our editors.
24 JANUARY 2025 • By TMR
Karim Goury reviews the Iranian film, "My Favorite Cake," a celebration of love in the twilight of life, in a society where prohibition and surveillance reign.
17 JANUARY 2025 • By Karim Goury
A conversation in which two Arabic to English translators and scholars consider language and Gaza with respect to the west's racism and indifference.
17 JANUARY 2025 • By Yasmeen Hanoosh, Huda J. Fakhreddine
Ashour’s "Granada" trilogy arrives during the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and a long arc completes a circle of horror.
17 JANUARY 2025 • By Guy Mannes-Abbott
A review of a book that offers a portrait of a royal dynasty whose decline has significantly shaped the modern world.
10 JANUARY 2025 • By Azadeh Moaveni
Sophie Kazan Makhlouf challenges misconceptions that an authoritarian government precludes politically-critical cultural production.
10 JANUARY 2025 • By Jelena Sofronijevic
TMR's five main editors have selected two of our favorite stories of the year for your reading pleasure. Of course, we are utterly subjective.
28 DECEMBER 2024 • By TMR
Film & photography festivals, concerts, art, standup comedy, lectures...TMR World Picks run the gamut and are selected by our editors.
28 DECEMBER 2024 • By TMR
Sophie Kazan Makhlouf interviews international Moroccan artist Mounir Fatmi on his studio practice, why he makes art, and what he thinks of global audiences.
28 DECEMBER 2024 • By Sophie Kazan Makhlouf
Zahra Hankir reviews Hazem Jamjoum's English translation of Palestinian novelist Maya Abu Al-Hayyat's novel "No One Knows Their Blood Type."
20 DECEMBER 2024 • By Zahra Hankir
The conflation of antisemitism with political criticism of Israel not only stifles free speech; it makes Jews less safe around the world.
20 DECEMBER 2024 • By Stephen Rohde
A son of Hama — a former prisoner and now a TV correspondent — takes his first steps towards his country in over a decade.
13 DECEMBER 2024 • By Zaher Omareen, Rana Asfour
A Syrian medical student from Damascus, forced into exile, shares his story with political scientist Wendy Pearlman — anonymously.
13 DECEMBER 2024 • By Wendy Pearlman
TMR editors have compiled a list of 30 of their favorite titles on Syria, including novels, nonfiction and memoir.
13 DECEMBER 2024 • By TMR
Ibn Shalaby, like many Egyptians, is looking for a job. Yet, unlike most of his fellow citizens, he is prone to sudden dislocations in time.
6 DECEMBER 2024 • By Khairy Shalaby, Michael Cooperson
Lebanon may have survived yet another Israeli onslaught but the people emerge scathed and timorous, as if from a nightmare.
29 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Tarek Abi Samra, Lina Mounzer
Film & photography festivals, concerts, art, standup comedy, lectures...TMR World Picks run the gamut and are selected by our editors.
29 NOVEMBER 2024 • By TMR
The Turkish government has reintegrated Ahlat into the national narrative, but its history is more complex than acknowledged.
29 NOVEMBER 2024 • By William Gourlay
Rima Rantisi depicts the uncertainty and anxiety of Israel's assault on Lebanon, illustrating its impact on daily life.
22 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Rima Rantisi
Cultural arts venues have reopened, but Lebanon still faces canceled international events due to the ongoing war and evacuation orders.
22 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Nada Ghosn
Palestinian artist duo Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme fight anti-Arab propaganda by making challenging art.
22 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Events like the Day of the Imprisoned Writer risk becoming mere spectacles until they challenge the status quo.
15 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Abdelrahman ElGendy
A Jewish American has been afraid to express her reservations and criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza, but felt she had to speak out.
15 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Sheryl Ono
The Markaz Review responds to the results of the 2024 US presidential election, in which Donald Trump prevailed over Kamala Harris.
8 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Jordan Elgrably
Roger Assaf's poetic script for Jocelyne Saab's 1982 film about the siege of Beirut puts one in mind of today's stark reality in Lebanon.
8 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Roger Assaf, Zeina Hashem Beck
Letters from a displaced Lebanese poet today to civil war-era actor-director Roger Assaf evoke Beirut in 1982, 2006 and 2024.
8 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Zeina Hashem Beck
Multimedia and performing artists gather in Marseille for the 8th Biennale "Sin," on how to be a Palestinian artist after October 7th.
1 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Nina Hubinet
Long-time diasporic translators discuss the art of translation, from Arabic to English, identifying intersections and divergences along their paths.
25 OCTOBER 2024 • By Yasmeen Hanoosh, maia tabet
A year after committing ethnic cleansing, Azerbaijan prepares to host COP29 with little pushback from mainstream media.
25 OCTOBER 2024 • By Lucine Kasbarian
Film and photography festivals, concerts, art, standup comedy, lectures...TMR World Picks run the gamut and are selected by our editors.
25 OCTOBER 2024 • By TMR
Iason Athanasiadis talks to Petra Molnar about her new book on automated decision-making technologies that facilitate institutional violence while eliminating accountability.
18 OCTOBER 2024 • By Iason Athanasiadis
Rana Haddad interviews hybrid hopscotching writer Michael Vatikiotis on his colorful life and work spanning continents.
18 OCTOBER 2024 • By Rana Haddad
Nektaria Anastasiadou reviews polyglot Tony Molho's memoir about the Holocaust in Greece and his family history.
18 OCTOBER 2024 • By Nektaria Anastasiadou
Karim Goury reviews "Tatami," a sports combat film depicting the conflict between suppressive male law and individual female empowerment.
11 OCTOBER 2024 • By Karim Goury
Historic Palestine has always been a fertile agricultural land, a space of spirituality, and where wine was born and celebrated.
11 OCTOBER 2024 • By Fadi Kattan, Anna Patrowicz
Jordan Elgrably interviews free-spirited Iranian performer Aïda Nosrat on music, exile, freedom, and a passion for mixing cultures.
11 OCTOBER 2024 • By Jordan Elgrably
A book challenging myths and stereotypes about sexuality in the Arab world, exploring the language of queerness in the region.
27 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Bahi Ghubril
A world-renowned artist believes citizen photojournalism empowers communities to tell their own stories, giving it significant power.
27 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Marianne Roux
Film and photography festivals, concerts, art, standup comedy, lectures...TMR World Picks run the gamut and are selected by our editors.
27 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By TMR
A Gaza diary that is a physician's personal testimony on life under excruciating, unrelenting bombardment, loss and hardship.
20 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Selma Dabbagh
A book addressing the Adana massacre and exploring the events and dynamics that lead to acts of violence and why ordinary people commit them.
20 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Sean Casey
A few words from the editors on the passing of Elias Khoury, on September 15, 2024.
15 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By TMR
Western democracies share responsibility for the political upheaval that has shaken the Middle East from the 20th century until today.
13 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Dina Rezk
Editors recommend their top ten titles to read this season, from novels set in Egypt, Zanzibar, Oman and Palestine to Afghan and Syrian nonfiction.
13 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Rana Asfour, Malu Halasa
Celebrating the 19th Rencontre des Arts du Monde Arabe, Festival Arabesques will be held from September 10 to 22, 2024, in Montpellier.
30 AUGUST 2024 • By Laëtitia Soula
A Gaza-based writer captures the intense and harrowing experiences of individuals enduring the brutal realities of genocide.
30 AUGUST 2024 • By Sama Hassan, Rana Asfour
Art, activism, archaeology, and archiving are crucial for rebuilding and healing cities by combining the past and present.
23 AUGUST 2024 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
When a mother loses her child she can become inconsolable, living a desolate life, as she works for his return.
23 AUGUST 2024 • By Eman Quotah
The essence of Palestinian resilience, survival, and resistance is rooted in dispossession, as noted by Dana El Saleh.
16 AUGUST 2024 • By Dana El Saleh
In this excerpt from Badar Salem's "Deserted as a Crowded Room," Majdal falls in love with a West Bank resistance fighter who winds up in solitary confinement.
16 AUGUST 2024 • By Badar Salem
To celebrate the forthcoming publication of Selim Temo's "Nightlands," we present an introductory essay and two poems from the Pinsapo Press edition.
9 AUGUST 2024 • By Zêdan Xelef
Cory Oldweiler reviews the debut story collection by Farhad Pirbal, one of Kurdistan's iconic writers, now out from Deep Vellum.
9 AUGUST 2024 • By Cory Oldweiler
Alex Tan reviews a sci-fi anthology set in Egypt where all the writers aim to uplift the country from its post-revolutionary gloom.
2 AUGUST 2024 • By Alex Tan
Sophie Kazan reviews a new book on the late Nabil Kanso, the Lebanese pacifist artist whose work depicted the horrors of war.
2 AUGUST 2024 • By Sophie Kazan Makhlouf
The Bīylmawn festival has recently made a comeback but not everyone is pleased with the highly stylized and artistically reimagined carnival.
12 JULY 2024 • By Brahim El Guabli
The meta-narrative in Frank Herbert's Dune trilogy foresees the modern disaster of never-ending colonialism and a planet destroyed by oil.
5 JULY 2024 • By Ahmed Naji
Jasmin Attia's novel vividly portrays Egypt and Cairo by beautifully conjuring music and sound through descriptive prose.
28 JUNE 2024 • By Tala Jarjour
A community theatre company working in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine empowers women who often are not professional actors.
21 JUNE 2024 • By Victoria Lupton
Farah-Silvana Kanan questions whether, in this novel, the Franco-Lebanese master is at the height of his powers, or is having us on...
14 JUNE 2024 • By Farah-Silvana Kanaan
Continuously displaced Palestinians redefine "home" in Osama Kahlout’s surprising photographs from the war on Gaza.
31 MAY 2024 • By Nadine Aranki
An entire family is preoccupied with its history and questions of national identity, confounded by France’s rejection of the pieds-noirs.
31 MAY 2024 • By Katherine A. Powers
A major exhibition at Mimosa House aims to address pressing and unresolved issues faced by women, queer, and trans people across the world.
24 MAY 2024 • By Fari Bradley
Empathy requires knowledge and collective action to avoid blindly following the crowds, writes Nancy Kricorian.
24 MAY 2024 • By Nancy Kricorian
In her latest essay, writer Jenine Abboushi reminds us that the ethnic cleansing and destruction of Palestinian society did not begin on October 7th.
17 MAY 2024 • By Jenine Abboushi
From sound and installation to sculpture & photography, art and a history of violence collide in Rushdi Anwar’s new show.
10 MAY 2024 • By Malu Halasa
Joumana Haddad's short story delves into a woman's lifelong journey of navigating her relationship with the hijab.
26 APRIL 2024 • By Joumana Haddad
Malak Mattar's artwork at the Venice Biennale evokes a multi-sensory experience that demands to be felt, writes Nadine Nour el Din.
26 APRIL 2024 • By Nadine Nour el Din
A classic prison novel by Wisam Rafeedie recounts the revolutionary fervor of Palestinian political prisoners.
19 APRIL 2024 • By Rebecca Ruth Gould
An Arab playwright in London reacts to the canceling of Palestinian voices six months into a horrific war.
12 APRIL 2024 • By Hassan Abdulrazzak
TMR editors highlight the best events, books, films, podcasts and other cultural products from around the globe.
22 MARCH 2024 • By Malu Halasa
Viola Shafik addresses the controversy at the 2024 Berlinale, following the screening of a Palestinian-Israeli "solidarity film."
11 MARCH 2024 • By Viola Shafik
Malu Halasa offers an overview of three Middle Eastern films screening at the 2024 Human Rights Watch Film Festival in London.
11 MARCH 2024 • By Malu Halasa
Curator Nadine Aranki presents posters by new and established artists, writers and graphic designers, in the service of social justice for Palestine.
26 FEBRUARY 2024 • By Nadine Aranki
A blood-red line drawn across the form of Syria seems to confirm the nonsensical nature of the country’s political situation and makes the destruction of artist Issam Kourbaj’s homeland all the more tragic.
12 FEBRUARY 2024 • By Sophie Kazan Makhlouf
In tone, "Rotten Evidence" is cynical, bitterly funny, and oftentimes tender without ever being sentimental, writes Lina Mounzer.
12 FEBRUARY 2024 • By Lina Mounzer
In a translated tale from Palestine’s first lady of short stories, the newest technology exacts a toll on people ahead of their time.
15 JANUARY 2024 • By Samira Azzam, Ranya Abdelrahman
As a solar power plant overtakes a Moroccan desert town, reconfiguring its visual and territorial makeup, there are worries it might overshadow its rich cultural history.
15 JANUARY 2024 • By Brahim El Guabli
Turkish artist Sena Başöz explores the metaphor of the magnolia and the advent of the apocalypse within the realm of imagination.
8 JANUARY 2024 • By Sena Başöz, Alicia Kismet Eler
Gaza's professional para-cycling team for amputee athletes rise above Gaza's darkest days through determination and excellence in sport.
25 DECEMBER 2023 • By Malu Halasa
Killed in Gaza by the Israeli military, Refaat Alareer's spirit and words continue to live on in his students, writes Yousef M. Al Jamal.
18 DECEMBER 2023 • By Yousef M. Aljamal
Firsthand accounts of the war by Hossam Madhoun, a theatre-maker reporting from the rubble of Gaza.
18 DECEMBER 2023 • By Hossam Madhoun
A Gazan theatre artist, constantly endangered by the onslaught of Israeli planes, drones and bombs, writes from the heart of the matter.
11 DECEMBER 2023 • By Hossam Madhoun
Joumana Haddad tells the true story of a young Iranian woman in Tehran, albeit vehicled by fiction.
20 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Joumana Haddad
War and documentary photographer Maher Attar opens the Art District in Beirut to nurture other artists and beauty.
13 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Nicole Hamouche
A Libyan writer from Derna laments the floods that came not long after she devoted a short story collection to her hometown.
13 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Naima Morelli
Novelist Mai Al-Nakib opines that despite the bombs and the bullets, Arab voices and cultural narratives are on the rise and gaining momentum.
6 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Mai Al-Nakib
The editors of The Markaz Review recommended 20 of the best contemporary Palestinian novels, story collections and nonfiction.
6 NOVEMBER 2023 • By TMR
All the pasts of war are still contemporary, and continue shaping the present, killing its denizens, and erasing their memories.
23 OCTOBER 2023 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Eman Quotah reviews a new anthology of love poems by Arab poets writing in English in the diaspora and in country.
23 OCTOBER 2023 • By Eman Quotah
Robin Yassin-Kassab pays tribute to late Syrian writer and humanist Khaled Khalifa, who died at the age of 59.
16 OCTOBER 2023 • By Robin Yassin-Kassab
Poet and novelist Joumana Haddad tells the true story of a refugee from Aleppo who winds up on the streets of Beirut.
9 OCTOBER 2023 • By Joumana Haddad
Selma Dabbagh reviews a masterpiece that gives insight into the life of a remarkable woman artist striving to live on her own terms.
25 SEPTEMBER 2023 • By Selma Dabbagh
Aomar Boom describes the centrality of donkeys and mules to life in the unforgiving earthquake-shattered terrain of the High Atlas Mountains.
25 SEPTEMBER 2023 • By Aomar Boum
As she nears the end of her pregnancy, Itto and her in-laws find their lives turned upside down by a supernatural event.
7 AUGUST 2023 • By Karim Goury
Arie Amaya-Akkermans recounts the history of Beirut's museum, with its multiple destructions and resurrections.
12 JUNE 2023 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Karim Goury reviews Ali Cherri's haunting feature film The Dam, set in Sudan before the outbreak of the war this year.
4 JUNE 2023 • By Karim Goury
Yasmine Motawy interviews the critically-acclaimed Sudanese novelist and short story writer, Leila Aboulela.
29 MAY 2023 • By Yasmine Motawy
TMR's managing editor, Rana Asfour, checks out one of the world's largest book events looking for literary mana.
29 MAY 2023 • By Rana Asfour
Former ambassador Chas Freeman, Jr. argues that we have entered a new era in which players are shifting on the geopolitical chess table.
29 MAY 2023 • By Chas Freeman, Jr.
Rana Asfour talks to Syrian-born and raised qanunist Maya Youssef, who now lives and teaches in the UK.
22 MAY 2023 • By Rana Asfour
Speaking of Arab revolutions, Tugrul Mende reviews a new book from Stanford looking back at revolutionaries of Dhufar, south Oman.
15 MAY 2023 • By Tugrul Mende
Rula Khateeb Jarallah reviews the news translation of the Mohammed Said Hjiouij novella in which a man is transformed into a monkey.
8 MAY 2023 • By Rula Khateeb Jarallah
Janine AlHadidi reviews the gritty mystery thriller set in east Amman that has Jordanians talking.
24 APRIL 2023 • By Janine AlHadidi
Writer-photographer Ara Oshagan mediates on the borders between North and South Korea and the blockaded enclave of Artsakh.
17 APRIL 2023 • By Ara Oshagan
A new documentary on Gaza from Roland Nurier is touring France and screening in diverse film festivals worldwide.
10 APRIL 2023 • By Karim Goury
Jenine Abboushi wanders from Paris' chi-chi 16th to the quartiers populaires of Barbès-Rochechouart and the Goutte d'Or.
27 MARCH 2023 • By Jenine Abboushi
Franco-Egyptian filmmaker Karim Goury reviews the new feature film from Franco-Israeli director Michael Boganim.
20 MARCH 2023 • By Karim Goury
Karim Goury talks to the director of the new feature film on war, love and borders, Tel Aviv-Beirut.
20 MARCH 2023 • By Karim Goury
Rana Asfour reviews a collection of stories from writer and educator Zein El-Amine, who was born and raised in Lebanon.
20 MARCH 2023 • By Rana Asfour
Rana Asfour interviews fellow Jordanian writer Hisham Bustani about his stories, writing in Arabic and ideas on history and quantum physics.
5 MARCH 2023 • By Rana Asfour
In her Sudden Journeys column for February, Jenine Abboushi unfurls the Jordanian desert and mountains in the Wadi Feynan.
6 FEBRUARY 2023 • By Jenine Abboushi
Malu Halasa surveys the legacy of Al Saqi while also lamenting the end of Banipal Magazine and the retirement of the British Museum's Venetia Porter.
16 JANUARY 2023 • By Malu Halasa
Jenine Abboushi in her latest travel essay, returns to Morocco for a long-overdue visit.
9 JANUARY 2023 • By Jenine Abboushi
Filmmaker and critic Karim Goury remembers 10 films of 2022 from around the world.
26 DECEMBER 2022 • By Karim Goury
Pierre Daum, a correspondent for Le Monde Diplomatique, goes in search of Algerian artists in Algiers.
12 DECEMBER 2022 • By Pierre Daum, Jordan Elgrably
In the final installment of her three-part travel series on Israel/Palestine, Jenine Abboushi tours Hebron, Nablus and Jenin.
5 DECEMBER 2022 • By Jenine Abboushi
Rana Asfour talks to an Emirati about her ideas and development as an artist.
7 NOVEMBER 2022 • By Rana Asfour
In this, the second of a three-part travel series on Israel/Palestine, Jenine Abboushi continues her dystopic journey.
31 OCTOBER 2022 • By Jenine Abboushi
In a new three-part travel series on Israel/Palestine, Jenine Abboushi lays bare the surveillance state.
26 SEPTEMBER 2022 • By Jenine Abboushi
Rana Asfour reviews the third novel from Dutch Iraqi writer Rodaan Al Galidi.
22 AUGUST 2022 • By Rana Asfour
The Markaz Review presents Libya's Mohammed al-Naas in these exclusive excerpts translated by Rana Asfour.
18 JULY 2022 • By Mohammed Alnaas, Rana Asfour
Rana Asfour reviews Mai Al-Nakib's debut novel, in which the protagonist always thought she would leave her country.
27 JUNE 2022 • By Rana Asfour
Rana Asfour reviews Libyan-American author Hisham Matar's memoir of his time in Siena, Italy.
25 APRIL 2022 • By Rana Asfour
Laila Halaby on the new novel from Lebanon's multilingual feminist poet and powerhouse.
18 APRIL 2022 • By Laila Halaby
Author and Darija translator Deborah Kapchan recalls her friendship with two of Morocco's greatest contemporary poets.
11 APRIL 2022 • By Deborah Kapchan
Rana Asfour reviews the Booker Prize-nominated novel by Nadifa Mohamed based on the true story of a wrongly-convicted Somali in 1950s Cardiff.
7 MARCH 2022 • By Rana Asfour
In this excerpt of the banned Jordanian novel "Laila," introduced by Rana Asfour and translated by Hajer Almosleh, readers get a sense of Fadi Zaghmout's prose and purpose.
14 FEBRUARY 2022 • By Fadi Zaghmout, Rana Asfour
Rana Asfour provides an intimate look at two new Arab novels in translation, from Lebanese and Syrian authors.
10 JANUARY 2022 • By Rana Asfour
A family tragedy (we all have them), powerful forms of devotion and love, and a common political approach to “defeated peoples” in the world—all revisited over a weekend in Munich.
27 DECEMBER 2021 • By Jenine Abboushi
Jenine Abboushi inaugurates a new monthly column with a story about a prominent family that lost everything in Palestine.
29 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Jenine Abboushi
Rana Asfour reviews a new memoir about the legendary Dajani family, charged by a Turkish sultan with watching over King David's Tomb in Jerusalem, but exiled in 1948.
29 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Rana Asfour
British-Syrian novelist Rana Haddad compares her experience growing up in Syria with the way people beyond Syria's borders see her country.
29 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Rana Haddad
Despite its repressive regimes, Saudi Arabia has produced a number of world-class novelists — several of whom have seen their best work banned. Rana Asfour reviews three in English translation.
22 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Rana Asfour
Jordan Elgrably Imagine, if you will, being put on trial for publishing poems and stories extolling the values of human rights and equality — or rotting in prison as […]
4 OCTOBER 2021 • By Jordan Elgrably
The author of The Unchosen: The Lives of Israel's New Others contrasts American white supremacy with Israeli Jewish racism.
1 AUGUST 2021 • By Mya Guarnieri
Jenine Abboushi reviews the recent anthology of essays on socialism in the context of Palestinian resistance.
6 JUNE 2021 • By Jenine Abboushi
Rana Haddad interviews Istanbullu novelist Nektaria Anastasiadou about the little-known Rum community of Istanbul featured in her new novel.
21 FEBRUARY 2021 • By Rana Haddad
Arab/Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa have largely failed to fight racism and discrimination against black people. To go deeper into the DNA of Arab/Muslim racism, TMR asked Khawla Ksiksi to give an in-depth overview of the situation in Tunisia.
15 NOVEMBER 2020 • By TMR, Khawla Ksiksi
A different conversation about Arab belonging and assimilation in America, through the prism of Syrian experience.
15 OCTOBER 2020 • By Malu Halasa
Mount Athos and a scrolling screen collapse into a shifting sea of image and memory.
1 May, 2026 • By Xloi Karnezi
A writer ponders the accelerating demise of the world's oldest inhabited seas.
1 May, 2026 • By Iason Athanasiadis
At a Berlin residency, a Gazan writer finds unexpected kinship among women bound by cross-border grief.
17 April, 2026 • By Alaa Alqaisi
This gothic short story is set on the island of Unguja in Tanzania, where an idyllic house hides something darker.
8 May, 2026 • By Rebecca Lloyd
In a house shaped by war, a child’s question about a mysterious plant opens onto something far more dangerous.
8 May, 2026 • By Erfan Mojib
The relationship between a lonely man and his eccentric cleaner blurs into something more intimate and ambiguous.
8 May, 2026 • By Nur Turkmani
Our reviewer examines the Arab melancholy at the heart of Saleem Haddad’s second novel.
20 February, 2026 • By Layla AlAmmar
A new anthology from Saqi Books explores LGBTQ+ Arabs and their families from ten points of view.
20 February, 2026 • By Zein Murib
For Avi Shlaim and Gilbert Achcar, the genocide in Gaza is a turning point, one from which there is no…
13 February, 2026 • By Rebecca Ruth Gould
In Algeria, singer-songwriter Amel Zen and the group Iwal write and perform in their indigenous Dahri and Chaoui.
24 April, 2026 • By Sana Herireche
In Egypt where nationalist anthems are weaponized and satire becomes grounds for persecution, Taraddud stands as an act of survival.
17 October, 2025 • By Salma Harland
Paris provided the grit and opportunity for Nass el Ghiwane to hone a new sound that would rock the Magreb…
1 April, 2024 • By Benjamin Jones
A short documentary that follows the inspirational and extraordinary life of Tunisian blogger and activist Lina Ben Mhenni.
1 May, 2026 • By Amie Williams
An unorthodox family forged by crisis, three African women living together in Tunis, shelters a young shipwreck survivor.
27 March, 2026 • By Karim Goury
A new Palestinian drama set in 1948, 1978, 1988, and 2022 sets aside Zionist myths and recognizes historical injustices.
5 March, 2026 • By Jordan Elgrably
TMR asked writers and artists what motivation can remain, in times of war, to write or create art? More troubling…
10 April, 2026 • By TMR An unorthodox family forged by crisis, three African women living together in Tunis, shelters a young shipwreck survivor.
27 March, 2026 • By Karim Goury
Poet Zeina Hashem Beck tends to the tension between Arabic and English, grief and joy, and the inheritance of mother…
6 March, 2026 • By Abdelrahman ElGendy
