A Village Fest
The village began coming up in telltale wormholes straightaway, in February. First, an irksome slogan appeared on the square with a sickening portrait of the commander-in-chief; then, dirty symbols of...
View ArticleMan of Satin
I watched Mustafa Abu Khadra from inside Alia’s shop. He smoked long cigarettes nonstop, inhaling them between his fat lips and spitting out the tobacco that had stuck to his tongue. He stole glances...
View ArticleAfterwords
[For Gaza’s children] My father’s warm palms shielded my ears. I could hear his blood racing in his veins. As if being chased by the bombs falling outside. My mother’s lips fluttered like a...
View ArticleIt Started with a Phone Call
I was third in line. In exactly four minutes, my life was going to change. Since Chandrasekharan had already gotten through, our plan seemed to be working. Sri Lanka’s Katunayake International Airport...
View ArticleA Child’s Smile
Naïma My father was a hard man. Hard on everyone. It saved our lives one night, in Shefa’Amr. My parents and I were sleeping in neighboring bedrooms. My nightmares had given me the courage to crawl...
View ArticleNobody Can Identify Their Own Remains, and I Am Unable to Identify My Own
(1) Sitting in front of the screen, my thoughts resemble a bombed hospital. Someone is digging, they dig inside of me endlessly for the last grave. Where is the ultimate resting place, the last grave...
View Article“Pull Yourself Together” and “Seven Skies for the Homeland”
Pull Yourself Together O! How alone we are! All the others have won their wars and you were left in your mud, barren. Darwish, don’t you know? No poetry will return to the lonely what was lost, what...
View ArticleBetween Sky & Earth
Day 97, Time Has Swallowed Time, January 12 time has swallowed time night has swallowed day past future merged in a present of terror the boa constrictor encircling our lives has squeezed...
View Article“The Landscape around Us”: Marcia Lynx Qualey’s Ottaway Award Acceptance Speech
Thank you to Yasmine, who is a superstar in the firmament of Arabic-English literary translation and whose talent and finesse will continue to bring new communities of readers to Arabic literature in...
View ArticleThe Translation of War
Bullet Interpreter what is language? and what is the translation of war? what is pain? and what is the translation of tears? take your index finger off the trigger soldier! the bullet interpreter! I’m...
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