Sharma Shields

Sharma Shields is the author of a short story collection, Favorite Monster, and a novel, The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac. Henry Holt will publish her next novel, The Cassandra, in early 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 forOutstanding Prose. She received her B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington (2000) and her MFA from the University of Montana (2004). Sharma has worked in independent bookstores and publiclibraries throughout Washington State and now lives in Spokane with her husband and two young children. 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 alsoserves on the programming committee for Spokane's Spark Central.