Maliha's Bio

Maliha Masood is an award winning writer in creative nonfiction. She is the author of the travel memoirs, Zaatar Days, Henna Nights: Adventures, Dreams and Destinations across the Middle East (2007, Seal Press) and Dizzy in Karachi: A Journey to Pakistan (2013, Booktrope). Her essays on culture, gender, & identity have been published internationally in Asia Times, Al-Ahram weekly and several anthologies.  

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Maliha attended the historic Mama Parsi School until fifth grade. Her family immigrated to the United States in 1982 and she grew up in Bellevue, WA. As a teenager, Maliha was obsessed with tennis, The Brady Bunch and the British rock band, Duran Duran. She majored in Business at the University of Washington and worked for five years as a Market Research Analyst in the IT industry. Burned out in her twenties, Maliha bought a one way ticket to Paris and backpacked for a year and a half across Europe to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. She returned to Seattle just ten days before 9/11. 

Graduate School took her to Boston where Maliha attended Tufts University and Harvard. She got a Master's in Law and Diplomacy and moved back to the Pacific Northwest to find her true calling as a teacher. Maliha has taught courses in Political Science at Belleuve and Edmonds Community Colleges and was a resident teacher at Ingraham High School with Seattle Arts & Lectures Writers in the Schools (WITS) Program. She also teaches Debate at Open Window School.

An active board member of Action for Media Education, Maliha has been advocating at the policy and grass roots level to mandate critical thinking in media literacy skills and AI for K-12 classrooms. She believes technology should be a tool, rather than a toy, that empowers students to become mindful digital citizens. Passionate about youth and civic engagement, Maliha initiated the Teen Advisory Board at Tasveer where she also led storytelling workshops. She serves as a Community Advisor for Seattle's Wing Luke Museum and was the lead text writer for the exhibits, Hello, Auntie, Hello, Uncle and Lost and Found. Her work has been featured on NPR and PBS.