Crime Fiction From the Maghreb: Not So Hidden After All
Who says the genre barely exists in the region? A little detective work turns up plenty of fictional bodies in the libraries of western North Africa.
Making Prisons Visible: The Work of the MENA Prison Forum
The MENA Prison Forum, launched in 2018, researches and documents prisons and prisoners’ experiences across the region. Its resources include art, literature, film and testimonies.
10 Books, 10 Years Later: Literature After the ‘Arab Spring’
A sampling of how writers from the Middle East and North Africa responded to the chaos and frustrations of the “Arab Spring” uprisings.
Collection Brings Pioneering Iraqi Poet to New Audiences
Though considered “one of the most significant Arab writers of the twentieth century,” Nazik al-Mala’ika was little known in English. A new bilingual edition creates a fuller portrait of her work.
Recommended Reading, 2020: Books From and About the Arab World
A sampling of works published, translated or honored in the past year illustrates the diversity of scholarly and literary writing by Arab authors.
As Arab Students Vent Outrage Over Racism on Social Media, Educators Must Be Guides
Arab celebrities are posting images of themselves in “blackface.” Students are sometimes bewildered about how to participate in the Black Lives Matter movement. Educators must help.
Umm Kulthum: A Tribute to a Legendary Voice of Egypt
The life of a singer much loved across the Arab world is told in a Western-style musical in London. Can such an adaption succeed?
The Value of Creativity in the Mediterranean Cauldron
An Italian professor suggests that those living in the Mediterranean region take their natural tendency toward creativity as a philosophy and way of life and invest in it even more.
A New York Exhibition Unravels the Complexities of Contemporary Algerian Art
Waiting for Omar Gatlato, the first major survey of contemporary Algerian art in the United States, asserts the need to consider the cultural specificity of art from postcolonial nations.
New Cairo Museum Honors Naguib Mahfouz but Doesn’t Inspire
Egypt celebrates its most famous modern writer in the long-delayed museum, which finally opened last year. Visitors may wish, though, that it had taken a more engaging approach.
