Helen Mackreath

Helen Mackreath is the Middle East Correspondent for the Los Angeles Review of Books based in Istanbul, previously in Beirut and the West Bank. She is currently researching issues relating to Syrian refugee governance in Turkey.

Articles

Foundations of Solidarity: A Conversation with Anat Matar
Helen Mackreath talks with Anat Matar about her new book “The Poverty of Ethics.”
Helen MackreathFeb 27, 2023
- Politics
Foundations of Solidarity: A Conversation with Yasmin El-Rifae
Helen Mackreath talks with Egyptian author and activist Yasmin El-Rifae about her new book, “Radius: A Story of Feminist Revolution.”
Helen MackreathJun 23, 2022
- Around the World
The Language of the Misfit: On Oğuz Atay’s “The Disconnected”
A great Turkish cult novel of the early ’70s is available in English translation (sort of).
Helen MackreathJan 23, 2022
- Around the World
- Fiction
Foundations of Solidarity: Zeina Maasri Answers
Zeina Maasri speaks with Helen Mackreath about visual ephemera of resistance, postcolonial sites of dissensus, and erasures within the decolonizing moment.
Helen MackreathNov 26, 2021
- History
- Politics
Foundations of Solidarity: A Conversation with Zeynep Gambetti
The first installment in a new LARB series on human rights struggles and social movements in the Middle East.
Helen MackreathJul 5, 2021
- Politics
Threshold of Life: The Death of Nadira Kadirova
On global citizenship and the fate of the Istanbul Convention on violence against women.
Helen MackreathOct 3, 2020
The Intimacies of Violence: Sema Kaygusuz’s “Every Fire You Tend”
Helen Mackreath reviews the novel "Every Fire You Tend," written by Sema Kaygusuz and translated by Nicholas Glastonbury.
Helen MackreathApr 10, 2020
- Around the World
- Fiction
Pay Attention: On Carolyn Forché’s “What You Have Heard Is True”
Helen Mackreath considers “What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance” by Carolyn Forché.
Helen MackreathJun 7, 2019
Documenting the Mimaroğlus: Electronic Tape Music and the Turkish Émigré Avant-Garde
To listen to Ilhan Mimaroğlu’s music is to be struck by the multitude of voices, geographies, and struggles with which he was engaged.
Helen MackreathApr 6, 2019
- Around the World
- Music
Entrepreneur of Desire: Portrait of an Afghan Smuggler
A lonely and dangerous life of gambles and trust.
Fattah Lemar Rabiei, Helen MackreathMar 31, 2018
- Around the World
- Politics
The Bottom Rung of Migrant Hierarchy: Afghans in Istanbul
The precarious life of Afghan refugees in Turkey.
Fattah Lemar Rabiei, Helen MackreathJan 30, 2018
- Around the World
- Politics
From Place to Place: Syrian Christians in Istanbul
Syrian refugees live a precarious existence in Istanbul.
Helen MackreathJun 10, 2016
- Around the World
Swaying in the Crosswind
The women’s movement in Palestine is hard to assess, not only because of ambiguous metrics, but because many other struggles so often overshadow it
Helen MackreathMay 8, 2016
- Around the World
UNHCR Chief: Election of a Bureaucrat
Helen MackreathJan 1, 2016
- Around the World
Refugee or Migrant
Should we call them refugees or migrants? It is now common practice in Europe to enforce a heavy-handed, arbitrary categorization of those fleeing war.
Helen MackreathOct 9, 2015
- Around the World
Shadow City: Migrant Workers in Beirut
A culture of indentured servitude is increasingly the norm in Beirut.
Helen MackreathMay 13, 2015
- Around the World