Amina Kayani

May 20, 2024 | adimagazine.com | Amina Kayani

Amina Kayani (she/her) is a queer Muhajir writer, editor, teacher, and ghost-seer from unceded Cherokee and Muscogee land. She is a Lambda Literary fellow, holds an MFA in fiction from Purdue University, and has served as an editor at the Art Institute of Chicago, Sycamore Review, and Kajal. Her writing has appeared in the The Offing, The Kenyon Review, JOYLAND and elsewhere. She lives in Chicago with her spouse. Find her at aminakayani.com or on Instagram as @diy._.rice.

Jun 19, 2023 | theoffingmag.com | Rikki Li |Amina Kayani |Salma Antonia Alfaqeeh |Maria Poulatha

I only see my father while burning with fever. He approaches my bed without a face, holding a bowl of pears steamed with rock sugar and red dates. He nudges a morsel against my lip, an Ethiopian gursha, my damp sheets a banquet table and I his honored guest. Wo wei ni, he says in Chinese. I’ll feed you;, I weep, ;I grind a molar into my cheek until it bleeds and a gasp escapes: Only when I wake, choking on a tongue in search for scrapes, do I remember the mouth is where the body begins its healing.