I’m Yusuf, a writer based in Leeds.

I came to writing through a love of close reading. I loved taking a text apart and understanding exactly how it works: how language builds an argument, shifts emotions, or quietly holds power. It’s what I look for in the work I admire, and what I try to bring to my own.

My essays tend to stay close to Britain – a country with an inexhaustible collection of stories, and I find myself drawn back to it again and again. I particulalry want to shed light on the forgotten stories, and the lives that don’t often make it onto the page.

I also write fiction. I recently finished a play, Crossing Points, which highlighted the South Asian experience in the UK. It won the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club’s Playwriting Competition. It was performed in the Corpus Playroom, home of student-written theatre in Cambridge, to critical acclaim.

The writer who shapes my thinking about essays most is Jacob Geller. His ability to weave disparate threads into something cohesive and surprising is always a delight to experience.
As a student doctor, the humanity that shines through Atul Gawande’s work is a constant North Star in my practice.

I’m early in my career and still finding out exactly what form I want my writing to take. These pages are where I’m doing that in the open.

Take a look around.

– Yusuf