Stories from the Center of the World

New Middle East Fiction
Herausgeber: Elgrably, Jordan

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

"Short stories from 25 emerging and established writers of Middle Eastern and North African origins, a unique collection of voices and viewpoints that illuminate life in the global Arab/Muslim world. Stories from the Center of the World gathers new writing from the Greater Middle East, a vast region that stretches from Southwest Asia, through the Middle East and Turkey, and across Northern Africa. The 25 authors included here are either native to the region, or part of a diasporic community, a diverse mix of men and women, queer and straight, who come from a wide range of cultures and countries, including Palestine, Syria, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and Morocco, to name a few. Selected from among a wave of new fiction published in The Markaz Review, this 'best of' collection features both well-established and emerging writers, some being published in English for the first time. The stories span a number of styles and genres, from literary fiction to sci-fi, epistolary to noir. In 'Asha and Haaji,' Hanif Kureishi takes up the cause of outsiders who become uprooted when war or disaster strikes and they flee for safe haven. In Nektar Anastasiadou's 'The Location of the Soul According to Benyamin Alhadeff,' two students in Istanbul from different classes--and religions that have often been at odds with one another--believe they can overcome all obstacles. MK Harb's story, 'Counter Strike,' is about queer love among Beiruti adolescents; and Salar Abdoh's 'The Roots of Heaven' invites us into the world of former militants, fighters who fought ISIS or Daesh in Iraq and Syria, who are having a hard time readjusting to civilian life. In 'Eleazar,' Karim Kattan tells an unexpected Palestinian story in which the usual antagonists--Israeli occupation forces--are mostly absent, while another malevolent force seems to overtake an unsuspecting family. Omar El Akkad's 'The Icarist' is a coming-of-age story about the underworld in which illegal immigrants are forced to live, and what happens when one dares to break away. The Markaz Review, an online journal of literature and the arts, was founded in 2020 with a mission to showcase work from a cultural region that's often overlooked or misrepresented. Here, we get a different viewpoint. Moving from the margins to the center, or the markaz--a word and a concept shared among languages and cultures of the region--the writers featured here establish a worldview that highlights the vanguard creativity and humanity of the various populations represented in their stories"

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: City Lights Books
• Seitenzahl: 352
• Erscheinungstermin: 7. Mai 2024
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 205mm x 139mm x 24mm
• Gewicht: 356g
• ISBN-13: 9780872869073
• ISBN-10: 0872869075
• Artikelnr.: 68503621

Autorenporträt

Jordan Elgrably is a Franco-American and Moroccan writer, editor and translator, whose stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous anthologies and reviews, including Apulée, Salmagundi, and The Paris Review . He is the editor of Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction (City Lights, 2024) and co-editor with Malu Halasa of Sumud: A New Palestinian Reader (Seven Stories Press, 2024). He is the editor-in-chief of The Markaz Review, and is based in Montpellier, France and California. Hanif Kureishi is the author of The Buddha of Suburbia, Intimacy, Love in a Blue Time, and the screenplay My Beautiful Laundrette, among many other works. He lives in London.  Omar El Akkad is the author of the novels American War and What Strange Paradise. Born in Egypt, he spent his youth in the Gulf, then moved to Canada, and now lives in Oregon.  Salar Abdoh is the author of the novels Poet Game, Opium, Tehran At Twilight, Out of Mesopotamia, and A Nearby Country Called Love, and is the editor and translator of the anthology Tehran Noir. He’s based in New York.  Sudanese-born Leila Aboulela is the author of two short story collections and six novels, including The New York Times Editor’s Choice River Spirit. She’s based in Aberdeen, Scotland.  Malu Halasa is a Jordanian-Filipina American author of the novel Mother of All Pigs, and the non-fiction anthologies, Woman Life Freedom, Voices and Art from the Women’s Protests in Iran, Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline, Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations, with Maziar Bahari, and The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design, with Rana Salam. Halasa is the Literary Editor of The Markaz Review, and is based in London.  Sahar Mustafah’s first novel The Beauty of Your Face was named a Notable Book and Editor’s Choice by The New York Times Book Review, and included in Marie Claire Magazine’s Best Fiction by Women. It was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the Palestine Book Awards. She was awarded a 2023 Jack Hazard Fellowship from the New Literary Project and a literature grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Mustafah is a native Chicagoan and currently resides in Orland Park, IL.

Inhaltsangabe

Stories From the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction
Jordan Elgrably, Editor
Annotated Table of Contents
Introduction
I
Exiles, Émigrés, Refugees
Asha and Haaji — Hanif Kureishi
The author of the story collection Love in a Blue Time and the novels
Intimacy and The Last Word weaves a dystopian tale of migrants, love and
literature.
Hanif Kureishi is the author of The Buddha of Suburbia, Intimacy, Love in a
Blue Time, and the screenplay My Beautiful Laundrette, among many other
works. He lives in London.
The Salamander — Sarah AlKahly-Mills
In this magical tale set in Lebanon and on a mysterious Mediterranean
island, people dream of escape while a biologist seeks an elusive
salamander. Sarah AlKahly-Mills is a Lebanese American writer living in
Rome, Italy who was born in Burbank, California.
The Suffering Mother of the Whole World — Amany Kamal Eldin
A wayward daughter leaves Boston to spend a summer back home in Cairo,
where she observes the decline of her once prominent family.
Amany Kamal Eldin was born in Egypt and received her MA from Columbia
University. She has lived in the United States, England, France, Austria,
Kenya, Italy, Oman, Yemen, and for the last 20 years, in the United Arab
Emirates.
Godshow.com — Ahmed Naji
In a translation from Rana Asfour, a Muslim family man and an exile from
Egypt searches for the right mosque in which to pray in Las Vegas.
Ahmed Naji is the author of four novels in Arabic: Rogers (2007), Using
Life (2014), And Tigers to my Room (2020) and Happy Endings (2023). Using
Life landed him a sentence in one of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s
prisons for offending public morality, an experience he writes about in his
memoir Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in Prison (McSweeney’s, 2023).
His work has been translated into a number of languages and he has won
several prizes including a Dubai Press Club Award, a PEN/Barbey Freedom to
Write Award, and an Open Eye Award. He lives in exile in Las Vegas.
Nadira of Tlemcen — Abdellah Taïa
Sometimes you have to escape everything you know in order to become
yourself.
Abdellah Taïa writes in French and has published nine novels (many
translated into English and other languages), including L’armée du salut
(2006), Une mélancolie arabe (2008), Infidèles (2012), Un pays pour mourir
(2015), Celui qui est digne d’être aimé (2017), La vie lente (2019) and 
Vivre à ta lumière (2022). His novel Le jour du Roi was awarded the French
Prix de Flore in 2010. His novel, A Country for Dying, translated into
English by Seven Stories Press, won the Pen America Literary Awards 2021.
My Rebellious Feet — Diary Marif
A Kurdish boy in a large family longs for a proper pair of shoes that he
can show off to his cousins and schoolmates.
Diary Marif is a Canadian Kurdish nonfiction writer and freelance
journalist. He moved to Vancouver from Iraq in 2017, where he has been
focusing on nonfiction writing and has recently written two book chapters
for two different projects. He earned a master's degree in History from
Pune University in India in 2013.
The Afghan and the Persian — Jordan Elgrably
Forced to flee his homeland, the new life of a refugee is Europe is upended
by an unforeseen conflict.
Jordan Elgrably is a Franco-American and Moroccan writer and translator
whose stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous anthologies
and reviews, including Apulée, Salmagundi and The Paris Review.
Editor-in-chief and founder of The Markaz Review, he is the cofounder and
former director of the Levantine Cultural Center/The Markaz in Los Angeles
(2001-2020), and producer of the stand-up comedy show “The Sultans of
Satire” (2005-2017) and hundreds of other public programs. He is based in
Montpellier, France, and California.
A Dog in the Woods — Malu Halasa
A loss heals broken families and identities fragmented by assimilation.
Malu Halasa is a Jordanian-Filipina American author of the novel Mother of
All Pigs, and the non-fiction anthologies, Woman Life Freedom, Voices and
Art from the Women’s Protests in Iran, Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from
the Frontline, Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations, with Maziar
Bahari, and The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design, with
Rana Salam. Halasa is the Literary Editor of The Markaz Review and is based
in London.
II
The Question of Love
Anarkali, or Six Early Deaths in Lahore — Farah Ahamed
In the ancient romantic tale, Anarkali was a courtesan dancer in the Mughal
court of Salim Jahangir who was burnt alive for falling in love with him.
Here, she is a poor street sweeper in Lahore, nicknamed Anarkali by a white
professor researching bombings of the city’s churches.
Farah Ahamed’s writing has been published in The White Review, 
Ploughshares and The Massachusetts Review, amongst others. She is the
editor of Period Matters: Menstruation Experiences in South Asia, Pan
Macmillan India, 2022. She was born and raised in Kenya and now lives in
London.
Buenos Aires of Her Eyes — Alireza Iranmehr
In this translation by Salar Abdoh, one of Iran’s best-known contemporary
storytellers conjures a tale of octogenarian love in a Nabokovian mode.
Alireza Iranmehr was born in Mashhad, Iran. He has written extensively as a
critic and scriptwriter, and his novels and short story collections have
won several of Iran’s major literary awards. His works include The Pink
Cloud (Candle and Fog, 2013), and All the Men of Tehran Are Named Alireza,
and Summer Snow, both collections published in Persian. He lives and works
in the Gilan province near the Caspian Sea.
The Location of the Soul According to Benyamin Alhadeff — Nektar
Anastasiadou
A rich tale of thwarted love between Sephardic and Rum residents of
Istanbul.
Nektaria Anastasiadou is the author of the novels A Recipe for Daphne
(Hoopoe/AUC Press, 2021) and Beneath the Feet of Eternal Spring
(Papadopoulos, 2023). She is a Turkish citizen writing in Istanbul Greek
and English.
Rana Asfour (translator), a native of Amman, Jordan, is a writer, book
critic and translator whose work has appeared in such publications as
Madame Magazine, The Guardian UK and The National/UAE. She is the Managing
Editor of The Markaz Review.
The Cactus — Mohammed Al-Naas
In a translation by Rana Asfour, can a man who loves a woman prove his
mettle by taking proper care of a cactus that stings him with its spines?
Mohammed Al-Naas is a Libyan writer who is interested in alternative Libyan
stories. His novel Bread on Uncle Milad’s Table (HarperVIA, 2024) won the
2022 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. He divides his time between
Libya and Turkey.
Counter Strike — MK Harb
In this queer coming-of-age story, the narrator remembers a tenuous sense
of home as he searched for himself in adolescence in Lebanon.
MK Harb is a writer from Beirut who serves as Editor-at-Large for Lebanon
at Asymptote Journal. His writings have been published in The White Review
, The Bombay Review, BOMB, The Times Literary Supplement, Hyperallergic, 
Art Review Asia, Asymptote, Scroope Journal and Jadaliyya. He is currently
working on a collection of short stories pertaining to the Arabian
Peninsula. He lives in Dubai.
Raise Your Head High — Leila Aboulela
Can Egypt’s Arab Spring heal a rift between a sister who has been abused
and a sister who doesn’t believe her?
Sudanese-born Leila Aboulela is the author of two short story collections
and six novels, including The New York Times Editor’s Choice River Spirit.
She’s based in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Here, Freedom — Danial Haghighi
In this translation from Salar Abdoh, a small town couple in Iran have a
brutally honest conversation about marriage in light of the “Woman, Life,
Freedom” protests.
Danial Haghighi is a Tehran-based author of seven books and numerous essays
in Persian. His work has appeared in the short story collection Tehran Noir
(Akashic Books, 2014).
The Agency — Natasha Tynes
A thirty-something Jordanian woman with an American MBA hits her stride,
running Amman’s first international dating agency, but still hasn’t found
her one true love.
Nastasha Tynes is a Jordanian-American author in Rockville, Maryland, and a
regular contributor to The Washington Post, Nature Magazine, Elle and 
Esquire, among others. Her short stories have appeared in Geometry, The
Timberline Review, and Fjords. Her short story “Ustaz Ali” was a
prizewinner at the prestigious annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary
Festival. She is also the author of the speculative literary novel They
Called Me Wyatt.
III
The Roots of Heaven
The Long Walk of the Martyrs — Salar Abdoh
A story of Iranian and Afghan soldiers who survived the war against ISIS
living in Tehran.
Salar Abdoh is the author of the novels Poet Game, Opium, Tehran At
Twilight, Out of Mesopotamia, and A Nearby Country Called Love, and is the
editor and translator of the anthology Tehran Noir. He’s based in New York.
The Burden of Inheritance — Mai Al-Nakib
A woman makes a Herculean effort to preserve the memory and artwork of her
late husband.
Mai Al-Nakib is author of the novel An Unlasting Home (Mariner
Books-HarperCollins, 2022) and the award-winning short story collection 
The Hidden Light of Objects (Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, 2014).
She was born in Kuwait and spent the first six years of her life in London,
Edinburgh and St. Louis, Missouri. She divides her time between Kuwait and
Greece.
Eleazar — Karim Kattan
A Palestinian family mysteriously disintegrates while violence permeates
the valley in which they reside.
Karim Kattan is a Palestinian writer from Bethlehem who writes in French
and English. He is the author, most recently, of the novel Le Palais des
deux collines (Elyzad, 2021). Kattan, awarded the Prix des Cinq Continents
de la Francophonie in 2021, has also been shortlisted for many other
awards. His second novel, L'Éden à l'aube, is forthcoming in 2024.
Ride On, Shooting Star — May Haddad
In this sci-fi story, Carna’ is a spacefaring mail carrier fed up with
working for the Universal Courier Service who journeys to the edge of the
universe.
NOTE: Carna’ is an Arabic name — the apostrophe is meant to simulate a
letter written in Arabic.
May Haddad is an Arab American writer of speculative fiction whose work
deals with the Levantine Arab experience across time and space and touches
on themes of nostalgia, isolation, memory, and longing. With roots tracing
all over Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, they currently alternate their time
between the U.S. and Lebanon. You can find their work in the SFWA Blog, 
The Markaz Review, and Nightmare Magazine.
Turkish Delights — Omar Foda
Omar Foda draws on family lore and fieldwork to weave together a satirical
tale of ego and power in 1920s Egypt.
Omar Foda is a graduate of the PhD program in Near Eastern Languages and
Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. He has published articles
and a book on the history of Egypt including Egypt’s Beer: Stella, Identity
and the Modern State (University of Texas, 2019) and has taught at Towson
University, Bryn Mawr College, and the University of Pennsylvania. He was
born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and lives in Syracuse, NY.
The Settlement — Tariq Mehmood
An allegorical story with the strange beauty and simplicity of a tale by
Ghassan Kanafani or J.M. Coetzee.
Tariq Mehmood is a novelist and filmmaker. His first novel Hand On The Sun
(Penguin, 1983) on racism and resistance in the UK was republished by
Daraja Press in 2023. His next novel, Sing To The Western Wind, The Song It
Understands, is due out in Spring 2024 from Verso. He works at the American
University of Beirut in Lebanon.
The Peacock — Sahar Mustafah
A Palestinian woman battles both the patriarchy and the occupation to free
herself from the toxic jurisdiction men have claimed over her.
Sahar Mustafah’s first novel The Beauty of Your Face was named a Notable
Book and Editor’s Choice by The New York Times Book Review, and included
in Marie Claire Magazine’s Best Fiction by Women. It was long-listed for
the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the
Palestine Book Awards. She was awarded a 2023 Jack Hazard Fellowship from
the New Literary Project and a literature grant from the Illinois Arts
Council Agency. Mustafah is a native Chicagoan and currently resides in
Orland Park, IL.
The Icarist — Omar El Akkad
A beguiling coming-of-age story set in Doha, where the writer grew up
before his family emigrated to Canada.
Omar El Akkad is the author of the novels American War (Knopf, 2017) and 
What Strange Paradise (Knopf, 2021). Born in Egypt, he spent his youth in
the Gulf, then moved to Canada, and now lives in Oregon.
The Devil’s Waiting List — Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi
A solitary bachelor, seeking success as a writer, wonders what he has to do
in contemporary Cairo to get ahead.
Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi is an Egyptian author, translator and literary critic
in Cairo who specializes in fantasy, science fiction and children’s
literature. He has five novels published in Arabic so far. Two of them —
Reem: Into the Unknown and Malaz: City of Resurrection — have been
translated into English. He has published many short stories, poems, and
articles published in various languages.
About the Writers and Translators
Glossary
Acknowledgements