From ArabLit Quarterly: Naguib Mahfouz’s ‘The Man in the Picture’
“Sheikhun Muharram disappeared.”
Fiction
Mustafa Taj Aldeen Almosa: ‘My Mother is a Terrorist Gang’
“Death called me a couple of hours ago and told me in its foggy and cold voice that it wanted to visit me.”
Fiction from the Magazine: Raghad Qasim’s ‘Hair or No Hair’
“The no-hair phenomenon certainly has a backstory. “
Short Fiction in Translation: Bushra Fadil’s ‘Phosphorus at the Bottom of a Well’
“Forty hours passed, and Sa’ad’s memory was a moon hanging over the perturbed sky of the African continent. “
Hilal Chouman’s ‘World of Dogs’
“The next day, he was watching a livestream on television when he saw his dream on the screen. The streets of Beirut were flooded with mounds of garbage. This was the first step, he thought. Next, the piles of rubble would appear, and the people would vanish, leaving the buildings deserted.”
New Fiction: Excerpt from Badriya al-Badri’s ‘The Last Crossing’
“Lights are running towards me. It’s the first time I’ve seen lights with legs. It’s not a cartoon, these are actual lights, running so fast they are panting; I see their tongues lolling out, drooling as if they are about to leap on someone and shred him with their sharp fangs.”
An Excerpt from Laila AlOthman’s Classic ‘Wasmiya Comes Out of the Sea’
“His heart will trill as he draws in his bounty. He will sniff the mouth of each fish for that aroma he adores. Perhaps the fish will bring him treasures from the depths. Her ring. Her necklace. Some trinket or keepsake.”
Excerpt from Muhamad A. Jamal’s BILA HUDOOD-featured ‘Flying’
“They loved all and were loved by all, except, that is, for the chickens….”
‘Arsène Lupin,’ a Short Story by Sonallah Ibrahim
“His mouth discharged a second snort. I worried he might attack me, or tear me apart, but he settled his body back into the chair and sighed. “