The Taste of Names (novel) Salt Lake City, UT
THE TASTE OF NAMES blends together magical realism, historical fiction, myth, folktale, family saga, and magical recipes (that double as incantations) to tell a story of suffering, hope, resilience, and survival between two wars in the Balkans, a contested, war-torn land, and its people, caught between post-colonial and post-communist reckoning.
Masha Shukovich is a writer, poet, storyteller, folklorist, teacher, and intuitive chef with ancestral and indigenous roots in the Balkans; the Mediterranean; and West, Central, and Northeast Asia (Siberia). She is a mother, a demigirl (she/they), a neurodivergent person, a practical animist, and an immigrant from a country that no longer exists. Masha earned a BA in English Language & Literature from Belgrade University, Serbia; an MA and PhD degrees in Communication and Gender Studies from Texas A&M University; and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. Masha is a recipient of many creative writing awards. Her work has appeared in anthologies, books, edited volumes, chapbooks, scholarly and literary journals, on the radio, as well as on podcasts. Masha lives on Utah trails and online at mashashukovich.com.