#swana literature

[soracities]

Maram al-Massri, from A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor (trans. Khaled Mattawa) [ID'd]

[perfectlyripeclementine]

queer novel masterlist: Palestine edition

Found this list via @evereadssapphic on Instagram.

You Exist Too Much, Zaina Arafat

On a hot day in Bethlehem, a 12-year-old Palestinian-American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in a biblical city, an act they deem forbidden, and their judgement will echo on through her adolescence. When our narrator finally admits to her mother that she is queer, her mother's response only intensifies a sense of shame: "You exist too much," she tells her daughter.

Told in vignettes that flash between the U.S. and the Middle East--from New York to Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine--Zaina Arafat's debut novel traces her protagonist's progress from blushing teen to sought-after DJ and aspiring writer. In Brooklyn, she moves into an apartment with her first serious girlfriend and tries to content herself with their comfortable relationship. But soon her longings, so closely hidden during her teenage years, explode out into reckless romantic encounters and obsessions with other people. Her desire to thwart her own destructive impulses will eventually lead her to The Ledge, an unconventional treatment center that identifies her affliction as "love addiction." In this strange, enclosed society she will start to consider the unnerving similarities between her own internal traumas and divisions and those of the places that have formed her.

Opening up the fantasies and desires of one young woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities, You Exist Too Much is a captivating story charting two of our most intense longings--for love, and a place to call home.

Haifa Fragments, Khulud Khamis

As a designer of jewelry, Maisoon wants an ordinary extraordinary life, which isn't easy for a tradition-defying activist and Palestinian citizen of Israel who refuses to be crushed by the feeling that she is an unwelcome guest in the land of her ancestors. She volunteers for the Machsom Watch, an organization that helps children in the Occupied Territories cross the border to receive medical care. Frustrated by her boyfriend Ziyad and her father, who both want her to get on with life and forget those in the Occupied Territories, she lashes out only to discover her father isn't the man she thought he was. Raised a Christian, in a relationship with a Muslim man and enamored with a Palestinian woman from the Occupied Territories, Maisoon must decide her own path.

A Map Of Home, Randa Jarrar

In this fresh, funny, and fearless debut novel, Randa Jarrar chronicles the coming-of-age of Nidali, one of the most unique and irrepressible narrators in contemporary fiction. Born in 1970s Boston to an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, the rebellious Nidali--whose name is a feminization of the word "struggle"--soon moves to a very different life in Kuwait. There the family leads a mildly eccentric middle-class existence until the Iraqi invasion drives them first to Egypt and then to Texas. This critically acclaimed debut novel is set to capture the hearts of everyone who has ever wondered what their own map of home might look like.

The Skin And Its Girl, Sarah Cypher

In a Pacific Northwest hospital far from the Rummani family's ancestral home in Palestine, the heart of a stillborn baby begins to beat and her skin turns vibrantly, permanently cobalt blue. On the same day, the Rummanis' centuries-old soap factory in Nablus is destroyed in an air strike. The family matriarch and keeper of their lore, Aunt Nuha, believes that the blue girl embodies their sacred history, harkening back to a time when the Rummanis were among the wealthiest soap-makers and their blue soap was a symbol of a legendary love.

Decades later, Betty returns to Aunt Nuha's gravestone, faced with a difficult decision: Should she stay in the only country she's ever known, or should she follow her heart and the woman she loves, perpetuating her family's cycle of exile? Betty finds her answer in partially translated notebooks that reveal her aunt's complex life and struggle with her own sexuality, which Nuha hid to help the family immigrate to the United States. But, as Betty soon discovers, her aunt hid much more than that.The Skin and Its Girl is a searing, poetic tale about desire and identity, and a provocative exploration of how we let stories divide, unite, and define us--and wield even the power to restore a broken family. Sarah Cypher is that rare debut novelist who writes with the mastery and flair of a seasoned storyteller.

The Philistine, Leila Marshy

Nadia Eid doesn't know it yet, but she's about to change her life. It's the end of the ‘80s and she hasn’t seen her Palestinian father since he left Montreal years ago to take a job in Egypt, promising to bring her with him. But now she’s twenty-five and he’s missing in action, so she takes matters into her own hands. Booking a short vacation from her boring job and Québecois boyfriend, she calls her father from the Nile Hilton in downtown Cairo. But nothing goes as planned and, stumbling around, Nadia wanders into an art gallery where she meets Manal, a young Egyptian artist who becomes first her guide and then her lover. 

Through this unexpected relationship, Nadia rediscovers her roots, her language, and her ambitions, as her father demonstrates the unavoidable destiny of becoming a Philistine – the Arabic word for Palestinian. With Manal’s career poised to take off and her father’s secret life revealed, the First Intifada erupts across the border.

The Twenty-Ninth Year, Hala Alyan

For Hala Alyan, twenty-nine is a year of transformation and upheaval, a year in which the past--memories of family members, old friends and past lovers, the heat of another land, another language, a different faith--winds itself around the present.

Hala's ever-shifting, subversive verse sifts together and through different forms of forced displacement and the tolls they take on mind and body. Poems leap from war-torn cities in the Middle East, to an Oklahoma Olive Garden, a Brooklyn brownstone; from alcoholism to recovery; from a single woman to a wife. This collection summons breathtaking chaos, one that seeps into the bones of these odes, the shape of these elegies.

A vivid catalog of heartache, loneliness, love and joy, The Twenty-Ninth Year is an education in looking for home and self in the space between disparate identities.

Between Banat, Mejdulene Bernard Shomali

In Between Banat Mejdulene Bernard Shomali examines homoeroticism and nonnormative sexualities between Arab women in transnational Arab literature, art, and film. Moving from The Thousand and One Nights and the Golden Era of Egyptian cinema to contemporary novels, autobiographical writing, and prints and graphic novels that imagine queer Arab futures, Shomali uses what she calls queer Arab critique to locate queer desire amid heteronormative imperatives. Showing how systems of heteropatriarchy and Arab nationalisms foreclose queer Arab women's futures, she draws on the transliterated term "banat"--the Arabic word for girls--to refer to women, femmes, and nonbinary people who disrupt stereotypical and Orientalist representations of the "Arab woman." By attending to Arab women's narration of desire and identity, queer Arab critique substantiates queer Arab histories while challenging Orientalist and Arab national paradigms that erase queer subjects. In this way, Shomali frames queerness and Arabness as relational and transnational subject formations and contends that prioritizing transnational collectivity over politics of authenticity, respectability, and inclusion can help lead toward queer freedom.

Belladonna, Anbara Salam

Isabella is beautiful, inscrutable, and popular. Her best friend, Bridget, keeps quietly to the fringes of their Connecticut Catholic school, watching everything and everyone, but most especially Isabella.

In 1957, when the girls graduate, they land coveted spots at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Pentila in northern Italy, a prestigious art history school on the grounds of a silent convent. There, free of her claustrophobic home and the town that will always see her and her Egyptian mother as outsiders, Bridget discovers she can reinvent herself as anyone she desires... perhaps even someone Isabella could desire in return.

But as that glittering year goes on, Bridget begins to suspect Isabella is keeping a secret from her, one that will change the course of their lives forever. (I believe this book is by a Palestinian author but not actually set in or about Palestine.)

[strawberryflavoredsapphic]

In Search of Self: a Study of Queer Arab Women

In the United States Post Migration by Lexi Haddad

[fairy-spring]

Sometimes I wonder if people would look at my interpretation of Gerudo lore and how I use it and my OC to explore my own feelings as diaspora and think I’m being racist

[balkanturksblog]

"The strings of my heart are elaborated flowers, there they give birth to a garden of ours"

-

Mosque of Kalkandelen/Tevtovo, Macedonia

[thenerdsofcolor]

The Middle Geeks Episode 58: Free Palestine, with Hannah Moushabeck

The Middle Geeks interview Palestinian-American kid-lit author Hannah Moushabeck about the ongoing genocide in Gaza and what we can all do to help Palestinians.

We speak with Palestinian-American kid-lit author Hannah Moushabeck to discuss the ongoing genocide in Gaza, her work, and Palestinian culture. Continue reading Untitled

[fiercynn]

poetry outlets that support a free palestine

after finding out that the poetry foundation/POETRY magazine pulled a piece that discussed anti-zionism because they "don't want to pick a side" during the current genocide, i decided to put together a list of online outlets who are explicitly in solidarity with palestine where you can read (english-language) poetry, including, except where otherwise stated, by palestinian poets!

my criteria for this is not simply that they have published palestinian poets or pro-palestine statements in the past; i only chose outlets that, since october 7, 2023, have done one of the following:

published a solidarity statement against israeli occupation & genocide

signed onto the open letter for writers against the war on gaza and/or the open letter boycotting the poetry foundation

published content that is explicitly pro-palestine or anti-zionist, including poetry that explicitly deals with israeli occupation & genocide

shared posts that are pro-palestine on their social media accounts

fyi this is undoubtedly a very small sample. also some of these sites primarily feature nonfiction or short stories, but they do all publish poetry.

outlets that focus entirely on palestinian or SWANA (southwest asia and north africa) literature

we are not numbers, a palestinian youth-led project to write about palestinian lives

arab lit, a magazine for arabic literature in translation that is run by a crowd-funded collective

sumuo, an arab magazine, platform, and community (they appear to have a forthcoming palestine special print issue edited by leena aboutaleb and zaina alsous)

mizna, a platform for contemporary SWANA (southwest asian & north africa) lit, film, and art

the markaz review, a literary arts publication and cultural institution that curates content and programs on the greater middle east and communities in diaspora

online magazines who have published special issues of all palestinian writers (and all of them publish palestinian poets in their regular issues too)

fiyah literary magazine in december 2021, edited by nadia shammas and summer farah (if you have $6 usd to spare, proceeds from the e-book go to medical aid for palestinians)

strange horizons in march 2021, edited by rasha abdulhadi

the baffler in june 2021, curated by poet/translators fady joudah & lena khalaf tuffaha

the markaz review has two palestine-specific issues, on gaza and on palestinians in israel, currently free to download

literary hub featured palestinian poets in 2018 for the anniversary of the 1948 nakba

adi magazine, who have shifted their current (october 2023) issue to be all palestinian writers

outlets that generally seem to be pro-palestine/publish pro-palestine pieces and palestinian poetry

protean magazine (here's their solidarity statement)

poetry online (offering no-fee submissions to palestinian writers)

sundog lit (offering no-fee submissions to palestinian writers through december 1, 2023)

guernica magazine (here's a twitter thread of palestinian poetry they've published) guernica ended up publishing a zionist piece so fuck them too

split this rock (here's their solidarity statement)

the margins by the asian-american writers' workshop

the offing magazine

rusted radishes

voicemail poems

jewish currents

the drift magazine

asymptote

the poetry project

ctrl + v journal

the funambulist magazine

n+1 magazine (signed onto the open letter and they have many pro-palestine articles, but i'm not sure if they have published palestinian poets specifically)

hammer & hope (signed onto the letter but they are a new magazine only on their second issue and don't appear to have published any palestinian poets yet)

if you know others, please add them on!

[kitchen-light]

Mizna, a platform for contemporary SWANA literature, film & art, has published "Toward a Free Palestine | Resources to Act For and Learn About Palestine" - poems and essays you can read and actions you can support <3

[werewolf-transgenderism]

re your post about it--i'm curious about your thoughts on the global middle ages! i did my bachelors in medieval studies and whenever somebody asks, i talk about how the medieval period refers to a specific historical arc in a specific geographical range where a specific group of cultures were mingling. we don't talk about "medieval australia" in the same way we don't talk about "third intermediate period british isles" or "edo period caribbean," right? my thinking is that that's because the various cultural moments that led us to denote that date range as a specific period didn't happen in every culture, everywhere. the history of other geopolitical regions is periodized in ways that reflect historians' ideas of those regions' own major cultural shifts and such.

now i absolutely have not been keeping up with current discussions in the field, and if it's a whole thing totally feel free to tell me to just google it. but if you do have thoughts about it that you want to share, or literature to point me towards, i'd love to hear!

I think it kind of is A Whole Thing right now, alas, but! I do think the original idea of the global middle ages is important — it helps to gain a broader understanding of the premodern past. while “medieval” or “middle ages” has been used to almost exclusively refer to western europe c. 500-1500, we KNOW that there was trade and travel happening between europe, the SWANA region, and east asia, and that trade/travel certainly influenced culture/literature/etc. if we don’t also look to these regions we’re missing out on vital info about how the medieval world worked in direct contact with the western european regions we typically associate with the middle ages. in addition, thinking globally can also invite collaboration across disciplinary boundaries that are set apart for the reasons you mention — I’m thinking, for instance, of the interesting and important work that scholars like tarren andrews, suzanne conklin akbari, adam miyashiro, brenna duperon, etc., have been doing in collaboration between indigenous studies and medieval studies. nahir otaño-gracia has also been doing some interesting work on caribbean medievalisms and we know from late medieval/early modern documents that medieval understandings of race and monstrosity went hand in hand with the colonial projects of western europe.

one of the issues that’s been going around with global middle ages though is 1) it’s still not really “global” (for the reasons above, the research has mostly been focused on SWANA/east asia) and 2) it often tends to end up in the “I am giving my class one non-western european text (or maybe even just mandeville or marco polo or a crusade chronicle) in our survey class and patting myself on the back for my global syllabus” area OR the “this field is so incredibly not diverse and perhaps some of these people should think about why and how they’re engaging with these regions/cultures” issue re: extractive reading/research practices that don’t engage with the cultures whose history/practices/literature they’re using (tarren andrews’ work does a really good job of laying this out)

I personally would love if there were more collaboration happening across fields to make conversations about the premodern world across geopolitical and historical boundaries because I think it’s really interesting, and I think that how we set up periodization in history/literature creates artificial boundaries that can foreclose on understanding the diverse and interconnected nature of the medieval world. also the post I made was brought on by a public history book I’m reading about medieval women where I was thinking about how much I’d love to know about women in the medieval world outside of just western europe but it’s so much harder to find public history casual reading type stuff about those topics (and like. I can and do read academic books all the fucking time but I would love for some more public-facing stuff that’s a less intensive read)

[fairuzfan]

Hi I’m sorry to barge in about this but these last few posts about feeling invalid in ethnicity hit home for me. My grandfather was Lebanese and died before I could meet him, and aside from my mother I have no other Lebanese culture in my life. I have always felt pride in my heritage (especially after learning about grandpas possible skirmishes against the IDF? Unclear) but I’ve always felt like an outsider because I don’t know many other Arabs/SWANA irl and wasn’t raised in a typical Lebanese home. Obviously there are major differences between these two situations, but I wanted to know if you had any more suggestions on how to find community? At least for someone to tell me if I’m appropriating a culture I am only a fourth of. Again Sorry, I know this isn’t what you do here and I understand if it’s wasting your time. Thanks for being on this stupid app regardless

hey your grandpa sounds badass! im sorry you've always felt like an outsider... i will say, i'm not sure if it's cultural appropriation if you have familial ties to lebanon and acknowledge your history there. if anything, i think you still have a right to interact with it as a way to investigate your grandfather's history.

something that really connects me to palestine is literature. books, poetry, essays, think pieces — these expose me to a wide range of opinions and understandings of the world around them. do you happen to know if your grandfather had any writings from back then? or if you can ask your mother for stories about him? i've been trying to get my own grandpa on the phone to hear about his experiences in palestine before the Nakba.

it also might help to look into different writers and artists online and interact with them. I share a lot of tweets from palestinians (doctors, artists, writers) because that's where i learn the most about palestinian culture in palestine and the diaspora. I know I recommended them earlier, but I'd look up Radius of Arab American Writers. Their vibe is something I think you'd appreciate.

if you're part of any distinct groups like medical care or environmentalists, i would google "Lebanese Doctor Association" or "Lebanese Archivists." That's how I found librarians and archivists for Palestine.

but literature is still my go-to either way. I don't know many lebanese writers, but I do know fairuz LOL and she's probably the most famous lebanese person. Khalil Jibran is also a famous lebanese writer you might look into.

if anyone else has any tips, feel free to add on. im sorry, i don't know if i helped too much. i hope that you can reconnect with your grandfather's heritage and learn more about him. good luck and, more than anything, have fun.

[soracities]

Maram al-Massri, from A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor (trans. Khaled Mattawa) [ID'd]

[bashirs]

when juxtaposed with a human character like sisko especially, julian is almost culturally defined by his lack of culture. we can quite safely assume he's english based on the casting for him and his dad, holosuite stuff, and scattered details (plus i believe it's confirmed in supplemental canon) but unless i'm forgetting something, he doesn't outright tell us in any capacity. he definitely doesn't have an established hometown or anything. sure he's attached to earth more generally in a lot of ways, he's well-versed in classic literature and geography and he likes centuries-old history if only on a superficial level, but he still can't trace his own family tree back three generations. i would blame the writers not knowing what the fuck to do w him for half of julian's characterization (and lack thereof) so of course i'm cheering for anyone who wants to fill in the gaps by projecting onto him, but you really do have to make things up yourself because there's next to nothing actually there.

it's worth confronting the real-life side of ds9 leaving julian as a very generic "probably second or third-ish generation immigrant from somewhere in the swana region but maaaaybe south asia, who knows" type guy. and i do think it's questionable for the majority white writing team to have not even tried to give the character any sort of ethnic background. but when julian is a dishwashed version of british on top of that, he's most often an everyman who happens to have an RP accent and not be white, for better or worse. in more than one interview, alexander siddig has reflected on the fact he wasn't really thinking much abt his own cultural/racial identity in the '90s (and how he was then suddenly forced to post-9/11) and i think that was mirrored in julian. but even since then, siddig has politely declined to give his two cents on julian's ethnicity at least once, so at this point the genericness is arguably a semi-intentional facet of the character.

considering this again within the four walls of the story, julian is interested in all sorts of things including what other planets have going on culturally, so you can't chalk his cluelessness up to fundamental lack of curiosity. i can't imagine the nature of his relationship with his parents would've made him especially eager to connect with any heritage he may have otherwise had, but i think it's still more than that. so finally, i want to briefly consider garak as his foil: garak has to advertise his cardassian-ness because he's in exile, he's fundamentally failed at being cardassian and he's trying aggressively to cover it up because if he's not cardassian, then what the fuck is he? julian, on the other hand, may not want to draw too much attention to his own humanity because he's also fundamentally failed at being human in some sense but he hasn't been figured out yet.

luckily for him, star trek's earth is hyper-globalized and he probably wouldn't be an outlier for his absence of strong geocultural identity. and with the combination of the aforementioned factors, you could argue (from a purely in-universe standpoint) that it's even more than him just not caring – julian is obscuring this shit on purpose.

[riddlemefuckingthis]

The really weird thing about Israel is that literary everything about it is capitalist. It’s like even more capitalist than the US. Everything they do is to garner support for themselves from other countries financially. Their music is capitalist, their literature is capitalist, Israel is just a pick me which is so fucking weird. Even the annual Tel Aviv Pride is trying to get support from other countries. It’s so fucking weird! Being gay in Israel is capitalist! If you’re gay in Israel, they will want you to spread lies about how you’re so radially accepted there just so that you can make Palestine and other SWANA countries look evil. It’s fucking weird.

Israel reeks of capitalism

[queermuslimarchives]

Sally Mursi

DOB : 30 March, 1968

Known for : Egypt's first transsexual woman who fought a court case against al-Azhar

Alma Mater : Lycée School, al-Azhar's Boys School, al-Azhar university, Cairo University

Occupation : Activist, entertainer, housewife

Gender : Female

Sexuality : Heterosexual

Ethnicity : Arab

Sally Mursi (Arabic:سالي مرسي) is an Egyptian transgender activist & entertainer who caused nationwide controversy. In 1982 Sally turned to psychiatrist Salwa Girgis, who diagnosed her gender dysphoria & underwent 3 years of therapy. At that time, Sally told her family that adopting the attire and mannerisms of a woman was part of the therapy designed to help her. But her family wouldn’t listen to her, they didn’t get it. She was suspended for 2 months by Al-azhar University, just because she worn women's cloths.They told her that she couldn’t come back until she changed her deviant behavior.

Her psychologist Labib referred her to a plastic surgeon Ezzat Ashamallah, who affirmed the diagnosis of "psychological hermaphroditism", an outdated term used in SWANA region to describe transsexuality or gender dysphoria. Ezzat prescribed her hormone replacement therapy for one year prior performing surgery on January 29, 1988. After her bottom surgery, Sally was barred from Al-Azhar’s medical schools: Neither the men’s nor the women’s colleges would take her. At the same time, Al-Azhar initiated a legal battle against Sally and Ezzat Ashamallah.

On May 14, 1988, the Doctors' Syndicate sent a letter to the Mufti of the Republic, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, asking him for a fatwa on this matter. In his fatwa, Tantawi concluded that if the doctor testified that this was the only cure for gender identity disorder, then this treatment is permissible. On June 12, 1988, Al-Azhar brought Sally's case to the court, in which process Sally was subjected to a full body examination.

Opponents of the sex-change operation interpreted it as supporting their cause because it condemned sex-change operations performed for transgender individuals. Conversely, Sally's party (and eventually the Public Prosecutor) viewed it as supportive of their position because it placed the final decision with the medical doctor.

Additionally, Al-Azhar falsely accused Sally of being a homosexual man and attempting to avoid mandatory military service. Sally filed two lawsuits against Al-Azhar and won two rulings; however, these rulings were not enforced as Al-Azhar operates independently. As a result, she couldn’t complete her final year in University of Al-Azhar.So, Sally finished her final year from Cairo University's Faculty of Literature. She entered the entertainment career and performed at El-Haram's most renowned nightclubs under the pseudonym Rahma. However, Egypt's Ministry of Culture banned her from performing at nightclubs.

[athenov]

in honor of doing absolutely nothing for 2 months, im remaking my pinned post.

hi im viktor. i study english literature and linguistics on the side, im a permanent resident of Wikipedia and i like to think of myself as an art enthusiast. i am also a heracles karpusi propagandist.

i have my own hetaverse mainly focused on balkan and eastern european nations, where i attempt to write characters more aligned to their history, although right now its on hiatus due to long-lasting burnout and a general lack of time. please be patient. unless i have explicitly said otherwise, all works will be eventually updated.

this blog is also extremely terf/bigot unfriendly. do not fucking interact, i dont care. your 'views' do not move me at all. keep that shit to yourself

my interests include:

•hetalia

•history

•shadow and bone/grishaverse

•medieval art — societies

•eastern european cultures

•caucasian cultures

•SWANA cultures

•fantasy books/worldbuilding

•sci-fi

•mythology

•analog horror (mandela catalogue, walten files, gemini home entertainment)

[balzabul]

been working on a sort of dnd-ization of mythological races and beasts from SWANA/MENA and like where I am so far 🤔 I'm applying a sort of logic analogous to European myth where many of the physical, mortal fantasy races were originally spiritual or incorporeal before being reimagined in the popular literature as actual races/species. the "human" races I have so far (which rly just means sapient and is more of a social marker/social privilege than anything) instead of elves dwarves etc:

Deu - Persian Div, but I'm using the older/oldest terminology I can find and Classical Persian pronounces it Deu; ogres or oni in appearance, large, horned, tusked humanoids that don't get the human label due to prejudice despite very much being related

Ghouls - look like Deu but smaller (between 3.5 and 5.5 feet), and often Born without horns. Carnivorous and cannibalistic, though most settlements have extremely strict laws about it. easily distinguishable from Deu by their cloven feet.

Jinn - the "elves" of the setting; magically inclined, often reticent to admit they're related to the other races, you know how it is

Ansho - what we would know as "normal" humans; round ears, average heights, and a long history of innovation

Peri - would easily be mistaken for Jinn if not for their wings.