The Latest

Leri Price and Samar Yazbek Finalists for National Book Award

Leri Price and Samar Yazbek Finalists for National Book Award

News /
Author Samar Yazbek and translator Leri Price made the five-book shortlist for the 2026 National Book Awards for Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life: Voices of Survival and Witness in Gaza ...

‘Romeo and Juliet,’ by Fawwaz Haddad

'Romeo and Juliet,' by Fawwaz Haddad
From ArabLit Quarterly, Syria /
At the recent Doha launch of ArabLit Quarterly's Spring 2026 The Fall of Eternity, co-editors Ghada Alatrash and Fadi Azzam spoke with Georgetown University-Qatar professor Youssef Haddad about literature, Syria, and the work of imagining a path forward. Today, we share a short fiction from the issue that attempts part of that re-imagination ...

On the Official Launch of PEN Sudan

On the Official Launch of PEN Sudan
News /
On September 30, 2026, PEN Sudan was formally admitted to PEN International during the 92nd PEN International Congress ...

Fiction

New Short Fiction: ‘Denial Likes Small Activities’

New Short Fiction: 'Denial Likes Small Activities'

This story comes from Hussein al-Abri’s latest collection, Time Slips Away in the Corner (2026).

...

Classic Short Fiction from Tunisia: ‘Hajj Zayan’

Classic Short Fiction from Tunisia: 'Hajj Zayan'

Mostafa Khraïef (1910-1967) was a prominent Tunisian poet, writer, and journalist.

...

Short Fiction by Muhammad Khudayyir

Short Fiction by Muhammad Khudayyir

A story from the fall of 1983 by the scribe of Basra, Muhammad Khudayyir.

...

See all posts in "Fiction"


Poetry

Mahmoud Darwish: ‘The End of Things’

Mahmoud Darwish: 'The End of Things'

There are events around the world this September 25-27 celebrating the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, after the Arab World Institute and Centre Pompidou declared September 25 to be “Mahmoud Darwish Poetry Day.”

...

Poetry in Translation by Fadwa Suleiman

Poetry in Translation by Fadwa Suleiman

“I’m sitting alone in my room / my clothes scattered around me”

...

Texts After the Screaming

Texts After the Screaming

Nour Balousha wrote these two poems “after I stopped screaming, not because it ended, but because I grew too exhausted to keep screaming.”

...

See all posts in Poetry


Interviews

On Music, Memory, and Damascus

On Music, Memory, and Damascus

“Music is one of the arts most connected to place, as it is a physical vibration in a space.”

...

On Shaping ‘The Book of Damascus’

On Shaping ‘The Book of Damascus’

The Book of Damascus, ed. Zaher Omareen, is a new anthology in their “Reading the City” series. Here, editor Zaher Omareen talks with Fifi Bat-hef about selecting ten stories to represent a city as complex and storied as Damascus.

...

Palestinian Sittis and the Inheritance of Memories

Palestinian Sittis and the Inheritance of Memories

In this conversation, Hooda Shawa offers inspiring insight into her experience writing such a personal and powerful novel as well as herself as an author.

...

See all posts in Interviews


In Focus

From Gaza
Between Two Arabic Translators with Yasmeen Hanoosh
May Goes On: (Re)-Introducing May Ziadeh

From the archives

‘Resistance and the Palestinian Folk Song’

'Resistance and the Palestinian Folk Song'
This piece appeared in our Spring 2021 SONG issue.  By Shaimaa Abulebda It was last year when a short video ...

A Talk with Poet Golan Haji: ‘Languages Never Draw Geographical Boundaries’

A Talk with Poet Golan Haji: 'Languages Never Draw Geographical Boundaries'

” Jaziri wrote poetry with one set of alphabets which at that time were used in four languages: Kurdish, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. Sometimes, he used the four languages in one couplet. His poems are still recited and sung by Kurds. That coexistence of languages was quite natural, the alluring music was convincing, although I sometimes understood almost nothing.”

...

Another Road for Syrian Poetry

Another Road for Syrian Poetry

“The divide among poets has added a diaspora to the spatial diaspora, which scattered Syrians around the world.”

...