Masha Shukovich (she/they) is a writer, poet, storyteller, folklorist, teacher, independent scholar, and intuitive chef with ancestry and indigenous roots in the Balkans; the Mediterranean; and West, Central, and Northeast Asia (Siberia). She is a mother, demigirl, neurodivergent person, practical animist, and a brown immigrant from a country that no longer exists. Masha is a recipient of many writing awards. Most recently, Masha was selected as the winner of Cutthroat Magazine’s 2022 Rick DeMarinis Short Story Prize, the winner of 2022 Page Turner Mentorship Award, and the recipient of the 2022 Courage to Write Writers of Note Award, among other things. Masha is a Tin House and Southampton Writers Conference alum and her scholarly work has appeared in anthologies, books, edited volumes, scholarly and literary journals, as well as on radio and podcasts. In her work and life, Masha is deeply connected and devoted to the land, her ancestors, the more-than-human world, and the Sacred Wild. She is inspired by the lived experiences of people like herself: humanimals, shapeshifters, and apparent outsiders who seem to belong nowhere and everywhere. Masha lives and writes on the land colonially known as the Salt Lake Valley and online at http://www.mashashukovich.com/. Instagram: @mashawrites