This year’s festival will celebrate the magical literature of the modern Middle East. Against the backdrop of ancient lands where paper was born and poetry has flourished since days of yore, the rich sweep of storytelling continues in today’s novels, memoir, and narrative journalism.

Our boundary-defying festival will give a panoramic view of the region’s literary landscape, with the leading Middle Eastern spellbinders weaving stories of their homelands and illuminating timeless themes — identity, immigration, hope, devastation, and faith, among them — in ways that shed new light on old worlds. Festival presenters include Khaled Hosseini, Firoozeh Dumas, Mona Eltahawy, Rabih Alameddine, Reza Aslan, Daniyal Mueenuddin, and many more.