Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, debut author Nishta Mehra describes herself as a mix of Sourthern Belle and good Punjabi girl. Born of Indian immigrants parents, Nishta is a nonfiction writer, teacher, award-winning food writer, blogger, and a middle-school English teacher in Texas.

She studied religion and sociology at Rice University before earning her MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Arizona. Her first book, The Pomegranate King, a collection of essays, was published in 2013. Mehra teaches high school in Houston, Texas, where she lives with her partner, Jill Carroll, and their son Shiv.

Her first book, The Pomegranate King, shares multiple facets of her self in a collection of essays divided into four sections — Identity, Death, Community, and Belief — revealing a young and unique diasporic voice.