Ausma Zehanat Khan, Author, Khorasan Archives

Ausma Zehanat Khan is the author of two series that we talk about in our conversation today. She’s got an incredibly storied and qualified history as a former professor and current Ph.D in International Human Rights. Her debut, the first in her mystery series starring Toronto detectives Rachel Getty and Esa Khattak, was released in 2015 and deals with the aftermath of the 1995 Bosnian Srebrenica massacre as the central investigation, with a lot more to it that we’ll get into during our chat.

Khan also has a fantasy series wrapping up this year. It’s a quartet of novels, originally planned at three but expanded in the style of George RR Martin, set in a fantastical version of the Muslim world. The Khorasan archives, incredibly, are an epic fantasy series that have come out one per year, starting with 2017’s Bloodprint and concluding with this year’s Bladebone. The books, starring Arian, Sinnia, and Daniyar, on a quest to right wrongs, depict an all too familiarly adjacent anti-intellectual setting, with the heroes trying to preserve knowledge and heritage in the face of ignorance.

Speaking of things concluding. We talked, appropriately, on the eve of Ramadan’s end, in a unique year where our collective situation is ripe for month-long reflection, but at least in my case really challenging when it comes to fasting, if the snacks we keep in the house are any indication.

This conversation is one that’s been a long time coming, and I’m really happy to have had a chance to do this chat.

#VerseShow comprises conversations that give voice to creators, their process, their struggles, and the celebrations of their work. It's an interview podcast with a bend toward curiosity about the creative process.