Sharon Mesmer

Sharon Mesmer was born in Chicago. In the '80's she was active in that city's literary scene, co-founding and -editing the publications B City and letter eX. Since making New York her home in 1988, she received a MacArthur Scholarship from Brooklyn College (by recommendation of Allen Ginsberg), and was a featured performer in "Words In Your Face," the 1991 season premiere of the public television series Live From Off Center. A chapbook, CROSSING 2nd AVENUE, was published in Japan in 1997, coinciding with her reading tour of three cities there. During two residencies at the MacDowell Colony and one at Hawthornden Castle, Scotland, she completed her first novel. In 1998 she collaborated with Prix de Rome-winning composer Barbara Kolb on an a capella libretto (in Latin) for the Indiana University of Pennsylvania's festival honoring the 900th birthday of medieval composer Hildegarde von Bingen. Currently, she teaches fiction writing and literature at the New School in Manhattan, is a member of the miscreant collective Unbearables, and is English language editor of the Japanese literary magazine American Book Jam. Her first collection of poetry, HALF ANGEL, HALF LUNCH, has just been published by Hard Press; a collection of stories, THE EMPTY QUARTER, will be published next year by Hanging Loose Press. Both her poetry and prose have been widely published nationally and internationally. Her former band, Mellow Freakin' Woodies, released a tape in 1994, "In A Mellow Freakin' Mood."