The Cassandra: A Novel
Winner of the 2020 PNBA Award
About
Myths, Monsters, Monstrosities
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 short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Electric Lit, Catapult, Slice, Slate, Fairy Tale Review, Kenyon Review, Iowa Review, Fugue, and elsewhere and have garnered such prizes as the 2020 PNBA Award, a 2020 Artist Trust Fellowship, 2016 Washington State Book Award, the Autumn House Fiction Prize, the Tim McGinnis Award for Humor, and the A.B. Guthrie Award for Outstanding 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 runs a small press, Scablands Books, and is a contributing editor for Moss. Sharma has worked in independent bookstores and public libraries throughout Washington State and is currently the Writing Education Specialist for Spokane Public Library. She lives with her husband (writer and graphic novelist Simeon Mills) and their two children.
THE SASQUATCH HUNTER'S ALMANAC: A NOVEL
Winner of the 2016 Washington State Book Award in Fiction.
Favorite Monster: Stories
Winner of the 2011 Autumn House Fiction Prize, chosen by Stewart O’Nan
“Lovely, twisted, and wry.”
“…intimate prose that grows both more and less fictional with each passing page.”
The Cassandra
“In This Updated Myth, Female Intuition Goes Nuclear” in The New York Times Book Review.
“The Cassandra Author Sharma Shields Discusses Atomic Bombs and Cursed Women” in Paste Magazine.
“The Cassandra: A Novel” in New York Journal of Books.
“Raise the Wild Cry: The Cassandra by Sharma Shields” in Tor.
“Selfless Girls Will Win Us the War” in Electric Lit.
“8 Great Books to Read This February” in NYLON.
“Sharma Shields’ highly anticipated novel The Cassandra recounts a dark slice of state history with a prescience for the future of nuclear politics” in The Inlander.
“Sharma Shields’ The Cassandra is Building Buzz” in The Spokesman Review.
“16 Fiction Releases to Watch For,” Washington Independent Review of Books.
“61 Books We’re Looking Forward to Reading in 2019,” Huffington Post.
“21 of the Best New Historical Novels Coming this Winter,” BookBub.
“Most Anticipated: The Great First-Half 2019 Book Preview,” The Millions.
The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac
“A Guest Review of Sharma Shields’s The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac" by Shawn Vestal. Omnivoracious.
“An Interview with Sharma Shields and Caroline Zancan” by Celia Johnson. Slice Magazine.
“Finally, a Novel About Sasquatch that Really Gets It Right” by Paul Constant. The Stranger.
“13 Novels to Devour This February” by Natalie Beach. O Magazine.
“What We’re Reading Now,” by Steph Opitz. Marie Claire.
“Ten Titles to Pick up Now,” by Natalie Beach. O Magazine.
“Sharma Shields’ Debut Novel Makes Fantastical Footprint,” by Carolyn Lamberson. The Spokesman Review.
Bookey, Mike. “Monsters & Demons: The Dark Yet Oddly Lovely World of Sharma Shields.” The Inlander.
Jones, Nicole. “Bleak Books to Read in January,” by Nicole Jones. Vanity Fair.
“The 50 Most Anticipated Books of 2015,” by Mark Medley. Globe and Mail.
“Breaking Big: Stars on the Rise in 2015. Names to put on your radar in movies, TV, music, books, and stage.” Entertainment Weekly.
“20 Books We’ll Read in 2015.” Entertainment Weekly.
“A Total Hot Mess of Bookage: Books for Dudes,” by Douglas Lord. Library Journal.
“Bigfoot, Myths and Bedtime Stories,” by Samuel Dunnington. Spark, The Online Magazine of Humanities Washington.
“The Book to Read in 2015? The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac,” by Misha Stone. The Booklist Reader.
“Alluring. Phantas-magoric. “
Books
The Cassandra, Henry Holt, February 2019
The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac, Henry Holt 2015
Favorite Monster, Autumn House Press, 2012
Stories
"Residents of the Air" in Catapult
"Boy Toy" in Hobart
"Sharpen Your Knives: Three Mother Stories" in Crab Creek Review
"Our Christophers" in Okey Panky
"The Bottomless Pit" in Electric Literature
"Harmony" in Slice
“The McGugle Account” in The Iowa Review
“Souvenirs” in Fugue
“Field Guide to Monsters of the Inland Northwest,” in The Kenyon Review.
Non-fiction / Book Reviews
“On Recklessness and the Coronavirus,” in The New York Times.
“Cauldron of Worries: On Being An Immunocompromised Mom During a Pandemic” in The Inlander.
“Make Me a Cold and Pitiless Goddess” in The New York Times.
“Great Grinning Things: Multiple sclerosis and transitions in Nicola Griffith’s novel So Lucky” in Cascadia Magazine
“Sex, Love, and Religious Fervor Abound in Two New Novels,” A review of The World is a Narrow Bridge and The Devoted. New York Times Book Review.
"A Drinking Memoir" in The Inlander
"Parenting on the Dark Side" in The New York Times
Ridiculous uncategorizable material
“Bigfoot was Just the Beginning: Inside the Secret Fetishes of Other American Politicians” in Slate.