Ashraf Aboul-Yazid’s A Backyard Garden is a profoundly human, polyphonic novel set in contemporary Egypt. It weaves together the lives of individuals in the village of Kafr El-Sarai, focusing particularly on the enigmatic figure of Sayyid Kamal—a hero of the Egyptian independence movement who retreats from public life to live
In the restless moments of waiting in Cairo, I wandered between the ebbing of words and the depth of ideas, torn between the ache of loss and the demands of study and the future ahead.
I spoke to myself once, then again, then again—until I found solace in patience and summoned my unyielding resolve.
I remained in the company of my
In this August 2025 edition of CAJ International Magazine, we invite readers on a journey that spans continents, ideologies, and imaginations. With 13 diverse articles that move from intimate literary dialogues to seismic political events, this issue offers more than a snapshot of global affairs—it is a cultural atlas of our
Surrounded by the lofty Aravalli hills, the place looked like a piece of Nandankanan. Eight royal men on horseback were riding toward Merta. After crossing a massive banyan tree near the fields, they arrived at a small marketplace. There, village folk had gathered with earthen pots, utensils, and other daily essentials. The villagers
As the 35th anniversary of the International Poetry Festival of Medellín unfolded, its founder, Colombian poet Fernando Rendón, posed a question that echoes far beyond Colombia: What makes this poetry festival captivate so many poets and thousands of attendees each year? The answers—flowing from poets, scholars, and
