Less polished than Reading Lolita in Tehran, but more immediate and raw, the essays in this collection were written by activists age 25 and under and culled from 8,000 entries submitted over five years for the Dream Deferred Essay Contest on Civil Rights in the Middle East, conducted online and sponsored by private foundations, including the Earhart Foundation and The Liberty Fund. The essays provide glimpses of daily life in countries where civil rights do not exist.

Read the full review of Arab Spring Dreams in Publisher’s Weekly here.