MEET ZAHRA MAYEESHA!🫧
AN INTERVIEW WITH A MAN HATER + PUBLISHING TIPS FROM AN EDITOR!
Zahra Mayeesha (she/they) is a Bangladeshi writer and editor currently living on stolen xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ land as they pursue an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. They are associate editor of the Bangladeshi speculative literary magazine Small World City, and the current content editor for prose at PRISM International. They are also our latest collaborator and the brains behind our latest open call…
There’s nothing in the world I love more than an opinionated woman. I first met Zahra in a fiction workshop (Sophie was there too!). In this windowless room, under the flickering fluorescent lights, Zahra’s hand was always raised, eyes focused, ready to talk. She asked amazing questions, wasn’t afraid to disagree. Zahra brought to the discussions so much perspective, nuance (and maybe one too many Stephen King quotes). We were paired as peer-editors the following term and sometimes when I was talking through my process Zahra would exclaim “GIRL! YOUR BRAIN!!”. Intellectual admiration is truly the fertilizer by which all literary friendships grow, and quickly Zahra and I realized we were in deep shit. When Zahra proposed taking over PTK with this open call, all I could think was:
GIRL! YOUR BRAIN!!!! 🧠
I’m so grateful and lucky to be able to continue this project with and for joy, love, and friendship. Please join PTK as we pick Zahra’s brain on the male loneliness epidemic, submission best practices, and the ultimate showdown between Tumblr, AO3, & LiveJournal!
Interview with a Man Hater*
*clickbait…ish
PTK: …so like… how are we spelling the title exactly…? DeCentering? DeCENTRING?
ZM: IDK good spelling is for colonisers.
PTK: Ok, word. Let’s start the interview.
PTK: Hello Zahra Mayeesha! How are you? Who are you?? Why do you hate men so much??? Can you share your god-honest true self with us?
ZM: Oh man (hah). I’ll have to try. To start: I’m a little baby writer trying to make and curate art that people can have feelings about. Baby because I only really shifted into professionally pursuing writing, and the arts in general, as recently as 2023. Before that, I was a researcher in sexuality studies. I’m also an MFA student at UBC, and aspirational functioning human being… though most days, stuck at the aspirational stage.
Also, I don’t hate men… personally. I have men I love dearly, whom I consider my friends, with gritted teeth or otherwise! I’m just also a militant misandrist and will be arming myself during the 2050 Gender Wars.
PTK: What made you wanna collab with us?
ZM: I stalked this brilliant person from my first semester fiction class and came across the obnoxious explosion of memes and poetry that is the PTK IG. And then we became friends (muhahah) and I was really wanting to work with the zine, but wanted the right project for it. One day, I was high and watching Mina Le videos and this guest issue suddenly came into my head, fully formed. And then it began seeping out like air from a popped balloon, even as I was frantically scribbling notes down:
And the joke title was enough to build the entire issue around. You get it too, right?
PTK: What kind of work are you looking forward to receiving?
ZM: Silly, flippant, angry, real, smart, emotionally honest. Filled to the brim with girlisms and gayisms. That being said, I feel the need to provide a disclaimer: contrary to what it seems (and the title of this interview), I don’t necessarily want works that simply descend into a misandrist rant. I do want to read about the complicated connections, identities and existences we all inhabit in relation to the patriarchal men/systems in our lives. Think anti-patriarchal > misandrist.
I do want to read about the complicated connections, identities and existences we all inhabit in relation to the patriarchal men/systems in our lives.
PTK: Other than PTK, what are some other mags you love?
ZM: Truthfully, I’m not great at keeping up with literary magazines. Maybe because I’m from Dhaka, Bangladesh, where we don’t have that many local literary mags, and I couldn’t exactly afford subscriptions to international ones. Plus, the rest of the world just felt too big to explore by myself. That being said, some of my favourites are Joyland Magazine, Strange Horizons, Socrates on the Beach, House of Arcanum and Nightmare Magazine. They all do their own specific niche perfectly, as if they were always meant to do exactly that.
PTK: When did you decide you wanted to work as an editor?
ZM: Like many of my most important life decisions, on a whim and a chance. In my undergraduate career, I had the opportunity to join the founding team of my university’s student-led periodical (which are not very common in Bangladesh). I’m very anal-retentive about copyedits and would volunteer to help with proofing even as a staff writer; this was either annoying or very impressive to the editorial board who, upon their graduation, made me Senior Editor and head of the writing department, whence I went mad with power.
No, actually, I just really enjoyed the experience and learned a lot of skills in a very short timeframe, and decided this was what brought me great satisfaction: working with other writers and creatives. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have gotten my wish in short order.
PTK: We heard through the grapevine that you have a storied past (pun intended) in fanfiction. How would you tag your work on AO3?
ZM: #inconvenient women #no beta we die like men #implied sexual content #but actually its just cannibalism and ghosts #and obsessive mother-daughter trauma #this is on the verge of purple prose #sorry not sorry
PTK: How do your past experiences in academia and fanfic impact your approach to writing?
ZM: I think it might be more accurate to say that my past experiences have influenced my approach to the purpose of my writing. They’re such wildly different worlds and yet have much in common. I think that academia taught me how to feel comfortable in being nerdy and hyperspecific about subjects I care about; and that whatever work I might produce is always building on and in conversation with the wide, deep history of human knowledge. Fanfiction spaces showed me that we welcome and are enriched by stories, no matter how small or repetitive, and that there is intense joy and connection to be found in being completely and utterly indulgent when we write.
I am unique; I am also one of many; I am part of a collective of writers reaching across space, time and the internet to say, “oh my god, same!!“
PTK: How are you contributing to the “male loneliness epidemic”? How do you feel about it even being labeled an epidemic?
ZM: Personally, I don’t engage with men unless they pass the litmus test of being able to initiate a conversation with me about anything that has nothing to do with them. It’s funny how many fail that test.
I’m very annoyed at it being labeled and treated like a huge social problem; it feels like a mislabelling to me. I think we’re witnessing what the fourth aspect of alienation looks like in late-stage capitalism: we’re all fucking lonely. Not just men. We’re all being forced into deeper forms of alienation and narcissism by the technologies and superstructures controlling our lives. But somehow, it’s male pain and women’s refusal to mitigate that pain anymore that is the “new” social ill.
I think […] we’re all fucking lonely. Not just men. We’re all being forced into deeper forms of alienation and narcissism by the technologies and superstructures controlling our lives.
Here’s my attempt-to-be-nuanced soapbox rant. Social movements of the twentieth and twenty-first century made it possible for people on the gender spectrum to explore and evolve their femininities and masculinities; and so women, enbies, transfolk, queer folk all have to different degrees. For example, the concept of womanhood evolved to subsume traditionally masculine virtues and flaws; heteronormativity evolved to encompass these changes. But cishet men “decided” to be left behind. I put that in quotes because I fully respect how powerful a drug patriarchy must be. To misquote a men’s rights activist, “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality must feel like oppression.” And when every propagandist tool (social media feeds, mass media, your dad) is telling you that women are the causes of and also the answer to your problems, it’s probably improbable to feel otherwise. But, my god, have some balls and choose solidarity over privilege and grow the fuck up already.
PTK: Ok, let’s say someone is reading this interview and has the perfect piece in mind. But they have never submitted for publication before. Do you have any hot tips for first-time submitters?
ZM: Keep your cover letter short, sweet and direct. Mention content warnings whenever necessary; and always mention if it’s a simultaneous or exclusive submission. I’d recommend having a template that you can adjust. I personally prefer including a one-sentence description of my submission, but this isn’t necessary for most mags. You can also include a bio if you have one, but always keep it below 50 words; editors will ask for your full bio if you get accepted. Always number your pages. Submit prose in .doc (let’s readers adjust formatting for their accessibililty preferences) and poetry/hybrid in .pdf (maintains the formatting of your work). You don’t need to include your contact details in the document, unless the mag explicitly asks for it (we’re in the digital age after all!).
I find these reduce the amount of friction in the submission process, both for the submitter and for the readers and editors receiving your work.
PTK: Ok. Let’s get to our burning questions: What’s in your bag? What’s your favorite color? Who’s your favorite writer? What’s your guilty pleasure show?
ZM: I’m chronically in a hurry at all times, so the bare necessities are always packed… lipbalm, lactaid pills, safety pins, wet n wild’s megaliner, a backup set of jhumkas. Blue is my favourite colour. I’ve reappropriated it <3. My faves haven’t changed in almost a decade, which probably says something about me psychologically, but they’re Terry Pratchett and Tamsyn Muir (been a big fan of the latter since the Homestuck Shipping Olympics (ahdkjfhakj this is feeling like showing my panties on the internet jfc)). I lovehatewatch Grey’s Anatomy and Bridgerton. I have a lot of feelings about them.
PTK: We usually end our interviews with a game of fuck marry kill, so here we go: fuck marry kill LiveJournal, Tumblr, AO3?
ZM: Oh noooooo this is hard. Okay, okay, I can do this. I have to marry Tumblr. It’s like, my soulmate, my secretkeeper, my childhood best friend. AO3 is so sexy and so important and I used to tagwrangle for them, so I’m going to fuck them (oop inappropriate boundaries). Which means, and this hurts my heart, that I have to kill LiveJournal. Internet culture would be nothing without LiveJournal so I understand the gravity of this, but in my defense, I think capitalism got there first anyway.
PTK: Finally… will you be our best friend now?
ZM: Girl… it would be my honour :’)
PTK and Zahra skip away holding hands 🧑🤝🧑
📣 OPEN CALL: d̶e̶centering men ft. Zahra Mayeesha
Submission Guidelines
Poetry Trapper Keeper will be open for submissions from March 8th - May 8th, 2026 (or, until we hit our reading cap).
We are only accepting submissions through our submission platform. Email submissions will not be read.
We want previously unpublished, original work. No AI-generated material, thank you next. Our definition of published is if it has been previously selected by an editor and/or coven of tastemakers. If you’ve published your poem on your blog, social media, or whispered it to your crush on a whim, we consider that unpublished work, so feel free to send it our way (maybe tell us where you’ve shared it before so we get the vibe).
Submissions can be simultaneous as long as you disclose.
Submissions must be primarily in English, but can have non-English languages in text with or without translation.
Multiple submissions by the same author(s) in different categories is okay, but not in the same category; we will only consider your first submission in the each category.
Collaborative work is cool, just let us know if it’s from more than one person we should credit. Collaborations with AI do not count as collaborations. Put your chatbot away! Hold hands with a human!
Submission Categories:
Poetry
One poem, 1-3 pages only.
Work with experimental/hard to replicate formatting is welcome but will be considered only if we can come up with a publishing plan with the poet!
Fiction & Nonfiction
Preferred length is 1000-2000 words. Submissions that are 2000-3000 words will be read but will only be published if exceptional.
Submissions beyond 3000 will not be read.
Comics
Preferred length is 1-5 pages.
Color ok! Though keep in mind depending on final publication format we might not be able to replicate full color work.
What else do I need to know?
This issue will be accepting anonymous submissions.
To ensure fairness in the selection process, please do not include your name in your submission (this includes in the FILE NAME!!!).
Please save your submissions as CATEGORY_TITLE.
You should include the name you’d like to be published under in your cover letter!
Selected work will be published digitally on PoetryTrapperKeeper.com. Once selected will work with you to ensure the work goes out in a way which feels right to you.
If you’ve never been published before, that’s totally fine! We do not take publication history into account when selecting work.
We would love to publish a one-off physical issue. This is yet to be confirmed. If selected we will contact you with options and you will have a right to an opinion on any future printing (though we will use a majority vote and analysis of viability as an ultimate deciding factor).
If you get selected for publication on PTK, we won’t “own” the first rights to your work (like most publications do). We don’t believe in owning anyone’s creative work for any amount of time. This means if your same piece gets republished elsewhere in the future, we don’t require you to credit us as the original publisher. You can if you want to, & we would love you for it, but you do you.
Either way, all copy and publication rights of the work will remain yours.
If you have questions you may DM us on IG or email poetrytrapperkeeper@gmail.com; however, due to time constraints we may not answer you in time. Please submit anyway! If your submission needs to change based on our own late answer we might allow you to resubmit.
Submissions that don’t follow these guidelines won’t be read or responded to (sorry).
Keep your eyes peeled for more PTK, coming soon!