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Ayesha Rehman

Writes about poets, poems and the craft of reading. Based in Lahore.

Eight lines from Keats, Tennyson, Thoreau, Wilde and others, set back in the work and the life they came from.

October 24, 2026•5 min read

A clear guide to Maupassant's 1884 story of a borrowed diamond necklace, ten years of debt, and one of fiction's best-known twists.

October 24, 2026•5 min read

A writing journal works best when it is low stakes. Learn what to write, how small to start, and how to mine your notebook for poems…

October 23, 2026•5 min read

You don't need a Great Idea to start a poem, just a method. Here are seven practical steps that take a beginner from blank page to…

October 21, 2026•5 min read

Learn how to edit a poem in layers, from structure and endings to line breaks and word choice, with a worked example and cuts worth trying.

October 20, 2026•6 min read

Why does Hamlet wait? A look at the sources, the soliloquies, the play within the play and why Shakespeare's prince remains unsettled.

October 19, 2026•5 min read

Why Cinderella appears in China, Greece and France: how folk tales spread, change, and get collected, from the Panchatantra to the Grimms.

October 18, 2026•5 min read

A plain-spoken guide to the ghazal: how it works, the terms to know, and the four poets, Mir, Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz, who shaped it.

October 18, 2026•5 min read

A plain-English guide to Chekhov's 1899 story about an ordinary affair that turns into love, and the open ending that made it famous.

October 17, 2026•6 min read

Fifteen well-known poetry collections that suit new readers, from Shakespeare's sonnets to Ocean Vuong, with an honest note on each.

October 15, 2026•5 min read