Sharon Short

Sharon Short is the author of the novel My One Square Inch of Alaska (Penguin Plume) in which a pair of siblings escape the strictures of the 1950s industrial Ohio town on the adventure of a lifetime. Sharon is a three-time recipient of Ohio Arts Council (OAC) Individual Artist Grants (2012, 2016 and 2018) for her fiction. Opening chapters of Alaska earned the 2012 OAC grant as well as a Montgomery County (Ohio) Arts & Cultural District Literary Artist Fellowship (2010).

Sharon writes historical mysteries as Jess Montgomery. Based on chapters of the first novel in her 1920s Sheriff Lily Ross series, THE WIDOWS, she received her 2016 OAC grant and was named the 2014 John E. Nance Writer-in-Residence at Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio.

Sharon's 2018 OAC grant was for short fiction–stories and the opening to a novella.

Additionally, Sharon's book Sanity Check: A Collection of Columns includes 100 reader-favorites of her weekly humor and lifestyle column that ran in the Dayton Daily News for more than a decade. Sharon has also published two mystery series (Josie Toadfern Stain-Busting Mysteries and Patricia Delaney eGumshoe Mysteries) as well as short stories and essays.

Sharon is the Literary Life columnist for the Dayton Daily News and is the former Director of the Antioch Writers' Workshop.

Sharon holds a B.A. in English from Wright State University and in 2013 was named the university's Outstanding Alumna for the College of Liberal Arts Department of English based on her achievements as a writer, columnist and director of a literary arts organization. She also holds an M.A. in English from Bowling Green State University. She makes her home in her native state of Ohio.