Middle Eastern & Arab Voices
Explore the richness and diversity of stories from across the Middle East and Arab world—from Cairo to Beirut, Tehran to Damascus, and beyond. This category celebrates authors who capture the complexity, beauty, and contradictions of their cultures through fiction, poetry, memoir, and critical thought.
Here you’ll find queer narratives, diasporic perspectives, feminist voices, and revolutionary art, all illuminating lives shaped by history, migration, faith, and love. These works challenge stereotypes and offer authentic, intimate portrayals of identity, resilience, and imagination.
Whether rooted in ancient cities or the modern diaspora, each story in this collection brings a vital perspective to the global conversation—powerful, poetic, and unforgettable.
Showing all 12 results
Part memoir, part travel narrative, A Return to Self traces Aatish Taseer’s search for identity, belonging, and home after losing his Indian citizenship, weaving together history, culture, and deeply personal reflection.
A powerful debut poetry collection holding grief, faith, queerness, and gratitude in the same breath. Moudi Sbeity reflects on Gaza, Lebanon, language, identity, and the possibility of liberation through compassion and awe.
Award-winning queer Iranian Canadian memoirist Roza Nozari explores family, migration, feminism, identity, and belonging while uncovering hidden truths about her mother, her heritage, and herself.
In this powerful memoir, Danny Ramadan recounts his journey from Damascus through the underground queer networks of the Middle East, imprisonment and upheaval, exile, and ultimately resettlement in Vancouver. Both intimate and unsparing, Crooked Teeth challenges simplistic narratives about refugees by making room for joy, love, danger, and complicated memories.
A powerful memoir of queer and political awakening, Fire in Every Direction follows Tareq Baconi’s journey across borders and generations—from his family’s displacement in 1948 to his own search for belonging as a gay Palestinian man in exile.
Over the course of one turbulent day, Rasa, a gay man living in an unnamed Arab country, faces the collapse of his carefully constructed life. As his lover is discovered, his best friend is arrested, and political upheaval swirls around him, Rasa is forced to confront his identity, his family, and the society he calls home.
An award-winning memoir about reconciling queerness and faith, told through the lens of Quranic stories and personal awakening.
A financially struggling PhD graduate embarks on one hundred dates with wealthy Los Angeles singles after jokingly deciding to “marry rich,” only to find herself drawn toward a very different future during a trip to Tehran. Smart, funny, and emotionally incisive, Liquid explores class, queer desire, ambition, and the absurd economics of modern adulthood.
Two women meet during the Egyptian revolution and form a connection that reshapes their lives. A lyrical queer novel of memory, identity, and longing.
A hilarious and heartfelt memoir about a gay Persian Muslim navigating faith, family expectations, identity, and West Hollywood chaos while finding his voice through comedy.
A raw and sensual novel of queer desire and survival, Selamlik follows a young Syrian man navigating secret encounters in Damascus hammams, forbidden love, and the brutal realities of exile. Khaled Alesmael delivers an unflinching portrait of Arab masculinity, homoerotic longing, and the quiet defiance of pursuing pleasure and connection in a world determined to erase it.
On his twenty-third birthday, queer Palestinian refugee Firas Dareer plans an elaborate dinner party where he will finally come out to his family and friends. But as secrets, family drama, romantic complications, and an increasingly unruly guest list threaten his carefully engineered evening, Firas discovers that coming out rarely follows the script.
