Sharyn Skeeter Author, Poet, Editor, Educator

Sharyn Skeeter’s novel Dancing with Langston received the 2019 Gold Foreword Reviews INDIES Book of the Year Award in Multicultural Adult Fiction. Her anthology of contemporary short fiction, What’s Next?, a 2023 Foreward Reviews INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist.

Her poetry and articles have been published in magazines, journals, and anthologies, including: Chicago Quarterly Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, Hypertext Magazine, Monkeybicycle, Fiction, Café Review, Callaloo, Connecticut River Review, Essence, Obsidian II, Pearl Magazine, Poet Lore, Re-Markings, Black Enterprise, Keeping the Faith: Writings by Contemporary Black American Women, In Search of Color Everywhere (ed. Ethelbert Miller), The Second Word Thursdays (ed. Bright Hill Press), and Our Black Sons Matter (ed. George Yancy).

After a year as an assistant in Mademoiselle magazine’s fiction and poetry department, she became fiction, poetry, book review editor at Essence magazine and, later, editor in chief at Black Elegance magazine. 

She taught elementary and junior high school in the New York City public schools. She was an instructor and assistant professor in journalism, writing, and black American literature at Emerson College, the University of Bridgeport, Fairfield University, and Three Rivers, Norwalk, and Gateway community colleges. 

She has given readings and participated in literary events in the United States, India, and Singapore. In Seattle, she’s a board member at Hugo House (literary arts organization) and secretary on the board of Earth Creative (arts organization to raise awareness about climate change). She’s a former trustee at ACT Theatre.