Born in Dhaka, what was then East Pakistan. Lived on Mymensingh Road, witness to the motorcades of royalty and dictators, to the passing of horse carriages in favor of buses and auto rickshaws, and to the alternating cycles of mass demonstrations and military curfews and gunfire. Schooled - with conflict - by Catholic missionaries from the American Midwest. Active in the movement for the liberation of Bangladesh. Refugee in India during 1971 war. Adult life in the U.S. shaped by the background of racial violence in the Boston of the 70s and the collapse of industry in the Detroit of the 80s.

In May 2004, I graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College in Oakland, California.