On Music, Memory, and Damascus
“Music is one of the arts most connected to place, as it is a physical vibration in a space.”
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.
Short Fiction from Syria: ‘The Blacklist’
Haseeb Al-Zainy’s “The Blacklist” appears in the new anthology The Book of Damascus: A City in Short Fiction, out this month from Comma Press.
Forthcoming July 2026: Fantasy and the Fantastic
This month, the magic of Suleima’s ring and a look at the modern Arabic fantastic.