This paper explores the representation of desire and sexuality in Lebanese war literature. By closely examining the emergent trend of “writing the body,” I argue that such representations redefine the process of canonization itself. I demonstrate how the contemporary Lebanese writers Rashīd al-Da῾īf, Hoda Barakāt, and Ulwiya Subh foreground a discourse that transcends the limitations of national, gender, and ethnic divisions and consequently opens a new dimension in the Arabic literary canon. These writers employ the novel as a tool to investigate the emerging sexual consciousness during the Lebanese civil war. Their portrayals of desire and sexual practices are derived from and reflective of the cultural and socio-political dynamics of their Lebanese society. Through a careful analysis of al-Da῾īf’s “To Hell with Meryl Streep” (2001), Barakat’s “Disciples of Passion” (1993), and Subh’s “Mariam of the Stories” (2002), I identify linguistic and lexical elements of the desiring narrative as it traces and traverses male and female bodies. I argue that such desiring narratives defy preconceptions of their foreignness and licentiousness. This paper suggests that by writing desire through writing the body across genders, these writers reimagine the canon as well as point toward its possible future.