Archive - Language of Loss

A Testimony or a Prayer

THE DISSENTERS has a cover I can show you!

May 8 •

March 2024

Sargon Again and Forever

My essay on Sargon Boulus, born today in 1944. It was written in 2010, republished in 2013, and revived by Barakunan in 2021. It's here now. 🎶 And news…

Mar 10 •

January 2024

"And I felt that God had appeared for real."*

Jan 28 •

December 2023

New Year Confession with Selfie

Once again a piece of flash fiction, kinda

Dec 30, 2023 •

November 2023

Nov 28, 2023 •

October 2023

Human Intervention

So, out of a sense of duty to the dead and dying, I've postponed the post I had scheduled—about Sargon Boulus—in order to say something

Oct 19, 2023 •

September 2023

A Fragment on, among others, Bonaparte, Sheikh Imam and Youssef Chahine

Sep 17, 2023 •

August 2023

The Strange Case of the Novelist from Egypt

This essay, which I feel is among my most articulate statements about contemporary Arabic literature, appeared on the Kenyon Review Blog ten years ago…

Aug 30, 2023 •

July 2023

Paradise: An Autobiography

My apologies if you have read this before. It is one of my favorite things of mine in English, and I am channelling its energy for what I have been…

Jul 27, 2023 •

A Muslim Medley, and a Markaz Review Conversation

My current project is a series of essays on the theme of identity, and since I want to push things forward, at least in my own mind, I'm sharing five…

Jul 11, 2023 •

June 2023

Nabokov, Murakami, the Beats – and Robert Beshara

Rakha’s narrators are all unreliable, winking at the reader to confuse them. But it is through that confusion that the reader can gain access to a…

Jun 19, 2023 •

A Review, a Gallery, and an Expletive

This is a disturbing book about torture, longing … and what happens when aliens are quietly manipulating your life

Jun 2, 2023 •

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