TMR 50 • RETURNING HOME Archives

2 May, 2025 • Nafeesa Syeed

After going to Cashmere in Washington state last summer, Nafeesa Syeed wrote the following essay on colonization, displacement, and belonging.

2 May, 2025 • TMR

In the 50th issue of The Markaz Review, diverse writers explore the return home in creative nonfiction, fiction excerpts and prose poems.

2 May, 2025 • Karina El Helou

The Sursock Museum in Beirut presents "Ode to the South," a tribute exhibition to the late Abdel Hamid Baalbaki, 1940-2013.

2 May, 2025 • Myriam Cohenca

Envisioning innovative new futures that challenge conventional thinking and inspire transformative possibilities.

2 May, 2025 • Salar Abdoh

Salar Abdoh reflects on returning to Iran, burdened by injustice and a desire to reconnect with a culture that has normalized disinformation.

2 May, 2025 • Mai Al-Nakib

Feeling that her childhood home differed from her birthplace, writer Mai Al-Nakib perceives home as more imaginary than real.

2 May, 2025 • Ati Metwaly

Sudanese artists in exile are keeping their identity and heritage alive while they await the chance to return home.

2 May, 2025 • Lara Kassem

My Tripoli breathes gunpowder, // … the city where mosques are bombed and streets get emptied. // … How can my Lebanon be their Lebanon?

2 May, 2025 • Gabriel Polley

Arabic jazz challenges stereotypes amid rising xenophobia in the West and colonial violence in the Arab world.

2 May, 2025 • Raha Nik-Andish

Not even escalating tensions between Israel and Iran could stop one wayward Iranian from returning home to see his father one last time.

2 May, 2025 • Batoul Ahmad

Batoul Ahmad, during a ten-year absence from Damascus, reconstructs her sense of home through memory and self-discovery in Australia.

2 May, 2025 • Sophia Didinova

Young Palestinian citizens of Israel navigate life facing a unique position as both insiders and outsiders.

Returning to Salé, his hometown in Morocco, a writer and educator is haunted by the voice of a gay lover, who insists on being remembered.

2 May, 2025 • Betty Shamieh

Shamieh's novel "Too Soon" invites the audience to reflect on their relationships with home and the multifaceted nature of belonging.

Sama Alshaibi’s new project focuses on the spatial, material, and technological fragments that narrate the story of a place and its people.