FICTION
“Zara” in Ploughshares
— In a ménage à trois far different from those in the Bollywood epics she grew up watching, Maryam comes of age sexually, creatively, and spiritually as she tutors her older brother’s girlfriend.
“Nine Eyes” in Nashville Review
— A Muslim American teen navigates a fraught friendship under the watchful gaze of aunties and tourists alike during summer at the Jersey Shore.
“A Woman Like Maasi” in Nashville Review
— During her first trip to Pakistan, a teenager befriends her uncle’s outcast wife and grapples with her sexuality.
“The Night of Power” in The Harvard Advocate
— On the holiest night of the Islamic calendar, a friendship dissolves and a wayward son returns home to Brooklyn.
LITERARY CRITICISM & CREATIVE NONFICTION
“For whom the trumpet sounds: on Laura Kasischke’s The Infinitesimals” in The Critical Flame: A Journal of Literature & Culture
— Quotidian tragedies and apocalyptic motifs co-exist in Laura Kasischke’s poems.
“A Moebius Strip Search: Rae Armantrout and the Speaking Id-Self” in The Adroit Journal
—A review of Rae Armantrout’s fragmented verses and the lyric ‘I’ cohered through them.
“Shepherding Virtuous Wolves” in The Harvard Political Review
—Are universities responsible for building students’ souls? Why do so many Harvard students flock towards Wall Street? Tracing the origins of the hotly contested “liberal arts” reveals the Ivy League’s role in shaping the language used to articulate higher education’s purpose.
“Slow Down, Maurice” in The Harvard Crimson
—On immigrant parents, the generational inheritance of stories, and rewriting our scripts
“Gushing Meat” in The Harvard Crimson
—On reverence and feeling in excess
“Historitas” in The Harvard Crimson
—On studying Harvard at Harvard
“Not Art” in The Harvard Crimson
—On deciding what ‘art’ is and who gets to decide
“From 'Cliffe to Crimson” in The Harvard Crimson
—On the women who shook and reshaped elite spaces at Harvard
JOURNALISM
“HBO Documentary Highlights Gun Violence” in TIME
“Meet the Muslim Mystic Pope Francis Cited in His Encyclical” in TIME
“How Pope Francis Hinted at His Climate Change Encyclical” in TIME
“Faith Leaders Stand with Pope Francis on Climate Change” in TIME
“Evangelical Group Training Pastors to Run for Elected Office” in TIME
“A Little Racist Knife: The AAA Challenges the Pudding” in The Harvard Crimson
—A study of the history of affinity groups at Harvard and the activist movement that emerged as a response
“The East-West Dichotomy in Pakistani Muckraking” in Harvard Political Review
— Pakistani journalists are dying in record numbers. What does this mean for coverage of the region?
“Crime and No Punishment” in Harvard Political Review
—As of 2014, Karachi has been ranked the most dangerous city in the world. Revisiting its history shows how Pakistan’s founder predicted—and tried to prevent—this statistic.
“Scene and Heard: Elizabeth Gilbert Cusses in Church” in The Harvard Crimson
—A colorful night unfolds at a church reading of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
“Conversations with: Ian Reynolds” in The Harvard Crimson
—A profile of a MIT whiz who created a nearly 30-foot LED-powered map of Boston’s transportation system