First Draft

  Everything you write is so brilliant—how do you manage? Well, I can't answer that question without sounding immodest. To be honest, I don't feel like I have to write,...

An author unafraid to defy midcentury attitudes about her gender. “What is important is humanity,” she said, “not being a man or a woman.” Forough Farrokhzad near Tehran circa 1966....

I had been thinking of feminist discourse and its relevance to all of us for years. The #metoo movement is my favorite, and while following it, I started reading articles...

They depict how women perceive the world and how they feel about it In the realm of literature, just like many other domains, women have come a long way. Urdu...

Özge Sebzeci Nebiye A. on the subway, Istanbul, Turkey, January 2019 Istanbul, Turkey—Nebiye A. crossed the Bosphorus on a ferry, far from the home and life she once had. On...

A definitive new study has great news for book lovers: Yes, reading fiction boosts your EQ. Whatever you might think of the year in politics or weather, 2018 was definitely a...

Months away from publishing her debut novel, a young Asian author and rising star of YA fiction just killed her own book to appease a social media mob condemning her...

Minarets and palm trees possess my pictured gaze, of heights within a vision, in heat and sun and haze.   Exotic in appearance and elegant they stand in noble perseverance,...

 Relatives can put some extra strain on a relationship.   "Crazy Rich Asians" blew away expectations at the box office and there are talks of a sequel on the way. Earlier in 2018,...

Nadine Labaki's Oscar nomination has raised the profile of filmmakers from the region Director Nadine Labaki and actor Zain Al Rafeea of Oscar-nominated Capernaum. Regis Duvignau / Reuters     Zain, a 12-year-old Syrian...