My essay “Wall in the Family” about how fortified borders impact the lives of Palestinian families and their concept of home appears on OpenCanada. Go here.
September
06
Palestinian Reading List #6: “Red Brocade”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
In the shadow of growing Islamophobia, a worldwide refugee crisis and Trump’s cruel immigration policies, Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem of welcome feels, well, welcome. Red Brocade The Arabs used to say, When a stranger appears at your door, feed him for three days before asking who he is, where he’s come from, where he’s […]
August
29
Head Bangers
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I recently had the experience of researching and writing a story about concussions in high school football for Alberta Views. Not my regular beat, to be sure, but this is a fascinating and controversial topic. I was happy to contribute to the discussion in this small way. Also, this story gave me the chance to […]
August
08
New cover!
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I am excited to reveal the cover of the new book. The good people at Goose Lane Editions did a great job. Now I just have the finish writing the damn thing.
August
02
Walls en francais
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Exciting news: the French translation of Walls, titled Un monde enclavé: Voyages à l’ombre des murs, comes out next month in France and Québec. I love what the publisher, Lux Éditeur, did for the cover.
May
30
Walls at the SHIFT festival
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I am very excited. The Troika Collective, a BC-based theatre company, has adapted my book Walls: Travels Along the Barricades into a lobby installation/performance for the SHIFT Festival 10. Imagining Walls “on stage” feels like the closing of the circle. My book aimed to render the physicality of the world’s border walls into text. Now this […]
May
18
Palestinian Reading List #5: “The Passport”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
An excerpt from a very funny short story called “The Passport” by author Ala Hlehel. In the story, a Palestinian author living in Israel desperately tries to retrieve his passport in time for a publicity trip to London. As he scrambles to find a way into the closed Ministry office, his mother calls: … […]
February
07
Palestinian Reading List #4: “To Describe an Almond Blossom”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
One of Mahmoud Darwish’s last poems, and a new favourite of mine. This translation, by Mohammad Shaheen, appears in Almond Blossoms and Beyond published by Interlink Books (2009). To Describe an Almond Blossom To describe an almond blossom no encyclopedia of flowers In any help to me, no dictionary. Words carry me off […]
“Illegal” in Arizona: a mother’s story
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
During the research for Walls: Travels Along the Barricades I had the opportunity to meet several migrants and would-be migrants along Arizona’s border with Mexico. One of the most affecting stories I heard came from a mother named Patricia who I met in Tucson. In advance of the Trump presidency, and all it may mean […]
September
13
Palestinian Reading List #3: “Is 53 seconds long enough to gather my soul?”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I met the young and wonderful Rana Mourtaja during my trip to Gaza last year. She writes short stories mostly, but composed this essay during the 2014’s summer war on Gaza. During the war, Israeli military planes dropped small and often non-explosive devices onto rooftops to warn residents that the building was about to be […]
