Sharma Shields

Sharma Shields is the author of a short story collection, Favorite Monster, and two novels, The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac and The Cassandra. Sharma’s fiction and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Electric Lit, Catapult, Kenyon Review, Iowa Review, Fairy Tale Review and elsewhere and have garnered such prizes as the 2020 PNBA Award, the 2016 Washington State Book Award, and the Autumn House Fiction Prize. She received her B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington (2000) and her MFA from the University of Montana (2004). Sharma runs a small press, Scablands Books, and is a contributing editor for Moss. A current employee of Wishing Tree Books in Spokane, Sharma has worked in independent bookstores and public libraries throughout Washington State. In partnership with Wishing Tree and the community center Spark Central, she does a virtual storytime on Monday mornings for toddlers and preschoolers. She lives in Spokane with her husband (writer and graphic novelist Simeon Mills) and their two children.