Writing about oneself is hard, but I’m working on it! Most of these essays are an attempt at articulating my specific interests, at tracing those interests to personal experiences, and at forming some kind of narrative that suggests where I’d like to go from here.
February 2018 (forthcoming): “Simulating Control,” an essay for the book of essays Becoming Dangerous, including writers like the beautiful Cara Ellison who connected me with book editor Katie West. Thank you, Cara! The book is described as a “nonfiction book of deeply personal essays by marginalised people operating at the intersection of feminism, witchcraft, and resistance to summon power and become fearsome in a world that would prefer them afraid.” Well!
August 2017: “But If You Pay Attention” for Palm Wine
This came out of an essay I hoped to write for Drunken Boat a couple of years ago, tracing how a radical aesthetic emerges or can emerge out of cultural dislocation and alienation. I was very happy with this and the responses made me feel this prose style and tone – somewhere between being extremely edited and bloggy/flowy – works well for this kind of material.
2016: “Error, Redacted” for the New Haven Review. It is billed as an essay on “failing better.” I met editor Brian Slattery in 2010 in brisk New Haven. I read fiction for the journal and promised him an essay, down the line. You can read that essay in this Scribd widget below, which gives the nifty option for downloading. There’s also a much more visually pleasing upload here at ISSUU with the real fancy-like flipping pages and such, if you fancy the fancy …
Nora N. Khan 