In December 1969 the Egyptian journal al-Tali'a published its special edition entitled “Hakadha yatakallamu al-udaba? al-shabab fi al-watan al-?arabi” (This is How the Young Writers in the Arab World Speak). It followed the original testimonials published in September of the same year that focused exclusively on artists from Egypt. Like its predecessor, the Arab-wide survey asked novelists, short story writers, poets, literary critics and visual artists to answer three questions regarding their position within the cultural field and the social, intellectual, and creative influences that contributed to their artistic production. It was accompanied by numerous articles by prominent critics reflecting on the content of the testimonials. Realizing that a new wave of artistic production was sweeping across Egypt, and the Arab world, the editorial team of al-Tali'a hoped to be one of the principle venues for presenting these artistic innovators to their audience. They understood that the creative phenomenon unfolding in the 1960s was not limited to a national context but crossed regional and international boundaries. This paper seeks to interrogate the formulation of the ‘Arab world’ as it appeared on the pages of al-Tali'a. In what ways do the artist testimonials help us understand the construction of the Arab cultural field during this time? How do they understand the intersection of the artistic, the political, and the social during this pivotal moment in the Arab world? In what ways did the artists seek to make connections across national boundaries? By engaging with the broader discussion unfolding in the literary and cultural periodicals of the time, I show the significance of al-Tali?a’s move to present the artistic innovation and experimentation of the time within the context of the Arab world.