El Ghourabaa
A Queer and Trans Collection of Oddities
Seeking uncanny, fun, experimental, creepy, sarcastic, playful, vulgar, inventive, sexual, weird, sweet, and evocative works, editors Samia Marshy and Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch set out to collect Arab and Arabophone queer writing. The result is an anthology brimming with gems by emerging and established writers and an homage to the lineages and complexities of queer Arab life. Multi-genre, multi-generational, and global, El Ghourabaa is an enigma, a delight, and a contribution to an ongoing conversation and creative outpouring.
In addition to Marshy and El Bechelany-Lynch, contributors include: Etel Adnan, Rabih Alameddine, Joe Kadi, Marlin M. Jenkins, Leila Marshy, Trish Salah, Olivia Tapiero, Nour Symon, Yehia Anas Sabaa, Nofel, Hoda Adra, Ralph Haddad, Seif Siddiq, Karim Kattan, Andrea Abi-Karam, Bazeed, George Abraham, Sarah O’Neal, Micaela Kaibni Raen, Nour Kamel, Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, Naja Kassir, and Barrak Alzaid. Plus a foreword by Sherine Elbanhawy.
Cover Art: Poline Harbali
Cover Design: Sultana Bambino
Praise
“El Ghourabaa (Metonymy), a collection of delightfully experimental works edited by Montreal-based writers Samia Marshy and Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch, is a vital new entry to the field of Arab diaspora literature…"
“The collection’s sheer diversity in both subject matter and form makes every part stand out: from a reflective except by the renowned late queer elder Etel Adnan, to a staccato panic-filled poem by self-described ‘punk poet-performer cyborg’ Andrea Abi-Karam.”
—Olivia Shan, Maisonneuve
“From navigating the locker room in a trans body, to lessons on remembering and on making love, to tender and heartbreaking childhood memories, the anthology is all at once wholesome, delicious, dark, and unpredictable…"
“A bold and thoughtfully curated anthology, El Ghourabaa is prolific and piercing in its beauty and stays true to El Bechelany-Lynch and Marshy’s queer, trans, anti-colonial, anti-imperial, anti-Zionist vision. A book born of love and necessity, it is an unforgiving and compassionate offering during times of heightened global violence.”
—Val Rwigema, Montreal Review of Books