Our fiction editor for November and December is Ahsan Butt, who recently published an essay for our emergency issue, as well as fiction in issue 1. Ahsan is a writer and essayist. He was born in Toronto, is of Pakistani descent, and currently lives with his wife in Los Angeles. His short-fiction and essays have appeared in The James Franco Review, Eclectica Magazine, LitroNY, as well as The Monarch Review, where he is a regular contributor.

What I’ve read lately:
Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life left me blubbering in a restaurant over a dinner for one. Her treatment of trauma and deconstruction of love forces you into crisis — several times. I haven’t read a story with such vision, executed so well, in a long while

What I’m looking for:
I want to read beyond my biases. I love writing that has conviction, but for some marginalized communities, conviction can get you convicted or killed. So rather than read for certain things, I’ll trust process: I’ll spend quality time with each piece, listen closely to what it does to me and what rises within me to meet it. That said, I will hold on to one criteria — biased or not: the piece should stay with me well past the initial encounter.

Submit fiction to Ahsan here.