"My Choices Are My Downfall"—a short story by Fadi Zaghmout What happens when a human-robot relationship forms? In near-future Dubai, an accident in a skyscraper holds the key to this question.

🤖 In our summer issue, @fadizaghmout.bsky.social’s "My Choices Are My Downfall" (tr. @bookfabulous.bsky.social) follows a woman, her robot, and one very bad morning in future Dubai.

A fire breaks out—and it may not be the robot’s fault.

🔗Read: bit.ly/my-choices-ar...

#TMR52 #FreedomToRead

Syrian Asylees in the US Risk Everything Going Home U.S. asylees and refugees must consider the risks of visiting Syria against the lives they've established in the U.S.

📖 In our summer issue, Rana Alsoufi follows Sam, a Syrian asylee in the U.S., torn between home and safety.

“I want to be in Old Damascus for two, three days… just do it my own way.”
Can return ever be simple for the exiled?

🔗 bit.ly/syrian-asylee...

#TMR52 #FreedomToRead #Syria #Exile

In Reading, We Resist In Paranda, everyday activities like reading symbolize protest and resistance in homes, alleyways, and gatherings.

📚 In “In Reading, We Resist,” Afghan writer Marie Bamyani shares how women in Afghanistan & diaspora defy tyranny through books. Reading is their oxygen, a quiet act of survival.

“Reading…has become a form of resistance.”

🔗 bit.ly/in-reading-we...

#TheMarkazReview #TMR52 #FreedomToRead

Palestine Is Literature: Elias Khoury & Ilan Pappé in Conversation Elias Khoury and Ilan Pappe discuss a mutual line of racism and victimization that runs through the Nakba and the Holocaust.

📚 “The Nakba is not a memory. It is the present.”

In #FreedomToRead, Elias Khoury and Ilan Pappé explore the Nakba as lived reality and the power of literature as resistance. From "Palestine in a World on Fire" (@haymarketbooks.org, 2024).

🔗 bit.ly/palestine-is-...

#TMR52 #SummerFictionIssue

In Nasser Rabah’s Poetry, تقول القصيدة كلمتها Nasser Rabah and other poets of Gaza are still writing — still sending their poems to us, because Palestine is literature.

🕊️ “The poem said its piece, and moved on…”

#TMRWeekly reviews “Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece” (City Lights, 2025) by Gazan poet Nasser Rabah, translated by Ammiel Alcalay, Emna Zghal & Khaled Al-Hilli.

🔗 bit.ly/in-nasser-rab...

#TheMarkazReview #TMR52 #FreedomToRead #Poetry

Taqi Spateen Paints Palestine Museum Mural of Aaron Bushnell Aaron Bushnell, the U.S. serviceman who self-immolated to protest the genocide in Gaza, has become a modern Palestinian martyr.

🇵🇸 Taqi Spateen paints Aaron Bushnell at Palestine Museum US — a mural of fire turned into poppies. A stunning tribute to resistance & solidarity.

By Hadani Ditmars via The Markaz Review
🔗bit.ly/taqi-spateen-...

#AaronBushnell #FreePalestine #ArtAsResistance #TaqiSpateen #FreedomToRead #TMR52

A Medical Gaze at the Grand Multiparas A doctor writes on the grand multipara, “the great giver of multiple births” — women who have given birth five or more times.

👩‍⚕️ “Even the grand multiparas make me angry — all while dazzling the doctor in me.”

A brilliant essay by Sarah Shaheen, translated by Lina Mounzer, on childbirth, medicine, and resilience in rural Egypt.

📖 Read here: bit.ly/a-medical-gaz...

#Empathy #FreedomToRead #TMR52 #TheMarkazReview

Memoricide Voided by Four Palestinian Women Diarists "Voices of Resistance" stands as a vital work of testimonial literature that refuses to be forgotten, writes Francesca Vawdrey.

📝 “They want to erase every trace of that life. But still, I remember.”

Francesca Vawdrey on “Voices of Resistance: Diaries of a Genocide” by Batool Abu Akleen, Sondos Sabra, Nahil Mohana & Ala’a Obaid (@commapress.bsky.social, 2025): bit.ly/memoricide-vo...

#TheMarkazReview #TMR52 #FreedomToRead

"Bleating"—a short story by Eman Al Yousuf After many years of being tormented, a man finally seeks revenge against past aggressors who have long since vanished. Or have they?

“He was born in this very place, and it is where he spends each day, his emaciated foot resting against the swirls of dust…”

In “Bleating” by Eman Al Yousuf (tr. @bookfabulous), revenge simmers on a yellow street where nothing—and no one—ever really leaves.

🔗 bit.ly/bleating-a-sh...

#TMR52

Palestine's Places and Memorials Are Not Forgotten A profound meditation on the Palestinian landscape, on loss, neglect and the ravages of time, by Raja Shehadeh and Peggy Johnson.

Shrines, graves, martyrs’ walls — in Forgotten, Raja Shehadeh & Penny Johnson uncover Palestine’s hidden heritage. Gabriel Polley follows their elegiac journey through memory and erasure.

🔗 bit.ly/palestines-pl...

#TMR #TMR52 #FreedomToRead #Palestine #BookReview

Architecture and Political Memory In Iraq, buildings don’t simply reflect ideology — they absorb it, transmit it, and sometimes resist it. Especially when left unfinished.

“It holds form without function — presence without clarity.”

Meriam Othman on Baghdad’s Al-Rahman Mosque: a vast, unfinished structure that haunts Iraq’s skyline — and its political memory.

🔗 bit.ly/architecture-...

#TMR #TMR52 #FreedomToRead #Iraq #ArchitectureAndMemory

"Waving at the Sky"—a story by Nahla Karam Two women on the mend in the hospital, one a wife and mother, the other pining for a lover, both dream of a better life.

“I am going back to my husband and children, even if it means seeing them with one eye.”

Nahla Karam’s piercing story (tr. Nada Faris) of two women sharing a hospital room in Cairo, where longing, betrayal, and survival coexist.

🔗 bit.ly/waving-at-the...

#TheMarkazReview #TMR52 #FreedomToRead

Reading Between the Lines of Land Trekking through the diverse terrains of Britain, Norway, and Saudi Arabia, a geologist embarks on a journey of self-discovery and reconnecting with her roots.

“I went with an open heart and open mind.”

Geologist Manar Alsaif hikes Britain, Norway, and Saudi Arabia, learning to read landscapes as stories—and finding her heritage written in stone and sand.

Read:
🔗 bit.ly/reading-betwe...

#TheMarkazReview #TMR52 #FreedomToRead #NatureWriting

Unwritten Stories from Palestine Thoth invites readers to witness the struggles of Palestinians and raise awareness of the ongoing catastrophe in the West Bank.

“Here we live and die and live and die over and over again.”

Thoth’s urgent dispatch from Palestine, where a 90-min drive becomes a 2-day ordeal of checkpoints and airstrikes, revealing everyday courage and loss.

🔗Read: bit.ly/unwritten-sto...

#TheMarkazReview #TMR52 #FreedomToRead #Palestine

Victor Hugo and Islam: A Literary Bridge Between East and West Victor Hugo’s way still guides those building bridges across languages, faiths, and histories in a time of fear.

“It is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live.” —Victor Hugo

@YahiaLababidi on Hugo’s quiet turn toward Islam, seeking kinship beyond borders, faiths, and fear.

🔗Read in our FREEDOM TO READ issue: bit.ly/victor-hugo-a...

#TheMarkazReview #TMR52 #FreedomToRead #VictorHugo

Syria and the Future of Art: an Intimate Portrait Following the banishment of Bashar Al-Assad, Syrian artists are starting to return and exhibit new work at home and internationally.

“Was this truly an end, or just the next turn in a cycle of hope and despair?”

Arie Amaya-Akkermans on Syria’s fragile artistic revival post-Assad, amid censorship, collapse, and cautious hope.

🔗 Read now: bit.ly/syria-and-the...

#TheMarkazReview #SyriaArt #TMR52 #FreedomToRead