Meera was born in Singapore, where she got lost between the front gate and her classroom on the first day of kindergarten and has never recovered from the shock. She lived in the country Wired magazine calls “Disneyland With The Death Penalty” until she was 19, and credits it for imparting her with a sense of controlled rebellion. When she arrived in the United States, she discovered that the grass might be greener here – but her thumb is just as black.

After graduate study in Children’s Literature and Education, Meera worked briefly as a teacher before realizing that further research was required before 6th graders would make any sense to her. She is now a full-time writer and editor; these endeavors support her ice cream and cheese addictions, and not much else. Besides writing weekly Front Page entries for Utata.org, Meera is responsible for publishing the My Town articles you’ll find on this site, as well as for dreaming up the monthly Picture This titles with which she is pleased to torment the Utata membership.

Meera lives, works, complains, and makes photographs in Chicago, where she lives with her code-monkey husband. She is currently working on becoming a rock-star.