New on Bulaq: Episode 120
New on Bulaq:
Books by Rabih Alameddine, May Ziadeh, Samar Yazbek, Lamia Ziadé and More
ArabLit Books is publishing the first English translation of early 20th century woman of letters and feminist icon May Ziadeh; Ursula Lindsey has been working on a review of the award-winning Lebanese novelist Rabih Alameddine. Marcia and Ursula also talk about a devastating book based on interviews with Gazan evacuees by the Syrian writer/activist/journalist Samar Yazbek; and a memoir of art and politics, set in Lebanon and France, by Lamia Ziadé.
Show Notes:
You can read about the “Lignes de Faille” Arabic literature conference in Marseille here.
You can sign up to receive May Ziadeh’s Musings of a Young Woman here.
Samar Yazbek’s book of interviews with Gaza survivors is Your Presence is a Danger to Your Life
The new memoir by Lebanese-French graphic artist Lamia Ziadé is Rue de Phénicie. You can read an excerpt here.
Rabih Alameddine’s books include The Angel of History (2014); An Unnecessary Woman (2016); The Wrong End of the Telescope (2021) and The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) (2025)
July 17, 2026 @ 5:24 pm
One real advantage of this podcast is that its conversations between Marcia Lynx Qualey and Ursula Lindsey is their spontaneous nature. The podcasts are well-prepared and researched, yet listening to them feels like eavesdropping on a salon conversation rather than hearing scholars at a convention. The podcasts roll out as two intelligent and serious intellectuals discuss worthy matters and this is really what sets them from other discussions of Arab cultural issues. This last podcast, for instance, deals with numerous matters and it relates them to backgrounds, cultural conventions, research and projects in the Arab world and beyond. We hear about Arab writing in North Africa, Europe, and the Levant mostly, and these are focal points that clearly relate to one another in obvious and subtle manners. Even a discussion of a graphic artist becomes one about social and political topics in Arab countries, and not just a review of a memoir.
Another virtue is delving into complex projects that help shape the present and the future in the region. Ursula’s research and book reviews in major world publications have some roots in these podcasts, and Marcia’s researching and publishing Arab cultural products. The current project of publishing May Ziadhe’s works, for example, has some twenty-five learned individuals working on it. To build solid traditions in producing and researching cultural matters is being consolidated in individual efforts by the likes of Marcia and Ursula, and that alone is a major contribution to Arab culture.
Coverage of other topics in the podcast are equally worthy to listen to. Samar Yazbek’s interviews with Gazans whose lives have been devastated by a current Israeli genocide that the world has turned away from. Another is a discussion of the works of ربيع علم الدين Rabih Alameddine that goes into background information to contextualize major themes in these works. We understand how anger in his writings, for instance relates to catastrophic events in the Arab world—like the Beirut port explosion. The passage Ursula reads on that explosion is deeply meaningful and evocative. That the writer is guy is certainly an issue, and discussing his work with the seriousness, empathy and dignity Marcia and Ursula show is one block in building worthy and civil debates on Arab culture.