Madinah: City Stories from the Middle East by collective
This collection of short stories features ten stories of cities in the Middle East. It was published by Comma Press, a Manchester based publishing house that is specialized in short stories inspired by cities: Decapolis: Tales From Ten Cities and Elsewhere: Stories from Small Town Europe. Madinah: City Stories from the Middle East is edited by the Lebanese poet, journalist and translator Joumana Haddad and her maxim is “no souks please” in an effort to rid Middle Eastern literature from the stereotypes of the orientalist west. Contributors to this collection are:  Nedim Gursel (Istanbul), Gamal Al-Ghitani (Alexandria), Fadwa Al-Qasem (Dubai), Ala Hlehel (Akka), Hassan Blasim (Baghdad), Yousef Al-Mohaimeed (Riyadh), Elias Farkouh (Amman), Nabil Sulayman (Latakia), Joumana Haddad (Beirut), and Yitzhak Laor (Tel Aviv).