Five years after the start of the Arab Spring, we feature a selection of writing from the region guest edited by Elisabeth Jaquette: a dark graphic short story by the Tunisian artist Chakib Daoud; an excerpt from Basma Abdel-Aziz’s satirical novel The Queue; existential short fiction by Syrian writer Noor Dakerli; and a breathtaking poem about the power of poetry by Libyan writer Hawa Gamodi.