Love, grief, life and death – all of these suddenly take on a whole new meaning when the place you call home is drawn into conflict and violence. In Libyan poet Nora M. Barghati’s world, the dark is turned into an act of cultural revival.

It was on January 25, 2011, that a larger-than-ever protest took over Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Here, 5 years later, are the best Egyptian literary works about it.

War & toys are hardly the best companions, yet toyshops are full with rifles & soldiers. War-Toys uses them to recreates kids’ memories from conflict zones.

A guitar, a sea of fish, birds flying from the barrel of a gun. All in fluorescent pink, painted by Iraqi photographer Jamal Penjweny.

An age-old saga of peace, love and war bringing together youth from Tripoli’s long time adversaries Bab Al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.

Jad Baaklini’s childhood recollections of a taxied escape from war-torn Beirut guide us through a geography reconfigured by conflict.

Iraqi Odyssey is a documentary film directed by Samir and released in 2014. This is the second of a series of film reviews co-published with REORIENT.

We went to buy paper and crayons, went over to the Kilis 1 UN camp, and asked kids to draw images of their country. They all drew moments of war.

Constance and Philippine Proux’s work focuses on the narratives of displaced Syrians living as refugees in Akkar, a frequently unstable border region.

I remember clearly the moment we stood facing each other — I, wondering if he was Iranian, and he, probably thinking that I was Iraqi.