Mir Masud-Elias

Mehrin (“Mir”) Masud-Elias was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, came of age in the United States and found her voice in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband and their two dogs. In September 2014, Mir launched the website Alu Bukhara Junction, a project to map our common culinary traditions with a focus on cuisines shared with the Islamic world (past and present). Under the pen name Mir Elias, she also writes poems influenced by the Sufi poetic tradition, as well as myths, folk and fairy tales. When not writing, Mir likes photographing the transient quotidian in minimalist form.