Sharma Shields is the author of a short story collection, Favorite Monster, and a novel, The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac. Her writing has appearaed in Electric Lit, the New York Times, Kenyon review, Iowa REview, Fugue and elsewhere, and has garnered such awards as 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. She received her MFA from the University of Montana. She is also a board member for Friends of the Spokane County Library District, and she curates the annual Lilac City Fairy Tales reading and anthology, showcasing local writers and musicians who created new work around the theme of fairy talesa. Sharma has worked in independent bookstores and public libraries throughout Washington state and now lives in Spokane with her husband and two young children.