Aya Al-Thani

Aya is an Arab/Muslim writer and artist based in London. Before studying at the Royal College of Art, she graduated with a First Class Hons. BFA from Chelsea College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London. Her body of work comprises nonfiction, fiction, 'semi-fiction', 'fictional nonfiction', poetry, and short stories.

Aya's work has been featured in group exhibitions and publications, such as St. Paul's Chelsea in the summer of 2022 where her poem Women's Shoes was exhibited. She is interested in wretched women, Arabian folklore, horror and humour and her work tends to feature at least two of the four. As of 2023, she has had two concussions and one broken bone but says not to worry, the night is still young.

I am mesmerised by retractable claws and videos of women pummeling each other in parking lots. I don't believe in ghosts and I am not receptive to the idea of a ghost proving me wrong. I love gothic horror, pro wrestling and waiting room coffee machines. I would eat anything once. I think about all of that when I write.

And lately, I think about how Anne Carson wrote, 'My mother forbad us from walking backwards. That is how the dead walk, she would say.' And how the only thing that could be worse than losing someone is if they were to actually come back from the dead. I think about how most writers die before we kill someone, but not all, and how humans have such round teeth.

And perhaps that is for a reason, we weren't meant to chew that which is not for us to chew. Then I think about how the original sin wasn't eating the apple but the fact that Eve used her teeth - made so harmless by God, defanged by design — to bite something she shouldn't have, so maybe we would have been condemned either way, had she swallowed or not.