Sharma Shields is an American author. She received her B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington (2000) and her MFA from the University of Montana (2004). She published the short story collection, Favorite Monster, and the novel, The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac. Her novel, The Cassandra will be publishd in 2019. Sharma’s writing has appeared in Electric Lit, Slice, The New York Times, Kenyon Review, Iowa Review, Fugue, and elsewhere and has garnered such awards as the 2016 Washington State Book Award, the Autumn House Fiction Prize, the Tim McGinnis Award for Humor, a Grant for Artist Projects from Artist Trust, and the A.B. Guthrie Award for Outstanding Prose. Sharma has worked in independent bookstores and public libraries throughout Washington State. A Public Services Specialist at the North Spokane and Spokane Valley Libraries, she is a board member for the Friends of the Spokane County Library District and also serves on the programming committee for Spokane’s Spark Central. She lives in Spokane with her husband and two young children.

*Image: Rajah-Bose