Masha grew up in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (they refer to it as X-Yugoslavia because the country no longer exists).  She speaks 5 languages, and has ancestry and indigenous roots in the Balkans; the Mediterranean; and West, Central, and Northeast Asia (Siberia).

Now living in Utah after getting a PhD in Communication and Gender Studies from Texas A&M University and an MFA in Creative Writing, Masha continues their journey as a writer, a mom, intuitive chef, a singer, a performer, a teacher, a researcher, and a visual artist.

Dr. Masha Shukovich is a neurodivergent person with acute synesthesia that she describes as her superpower.  Synesthesia essentially means that their brain interprets words and narratives as moving images (similar to videos); numbers as colors; tastes as images, shapes, colors and sounds; and so on. For example, she can taste or smell a recipe before actually making it, simply by reading it or hearing it read out loud, which has greatly enriched their experiences as a chef, an artist, a storyteller and their current fictional/magical realism novel, The Taste of Names. ​