SHARON BROWNING

vSharon Browning, born and raised in St. Louis, MO, never imagined living in Tucson, AZ, where a river flows underground, or people wait for the monsoon to bring rainfall, or she would have to lose a staredown with a javelina to avoid it from ramming her car. After 40 years of living in the Sonoran Desert, she meditates by peering at the saguaros peppering the mountainside just beyond her backyard.

Sharon envisions herself an artist flowing through a creative galaxy where her neurodivergent brain is on a neverending loop of writing poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. She loves learning languages and is studying Korean and relearning Spanish. She has rediscovered her love of sewing and crafts, and plans to relearn how to play the piano. After 30 years in public health, she looks forward to retiring the summer of 2027.

Her writings center Black women in the past, present, and future. Sharon hopes to create characters that haunt readers’ dreams and cast a spell that brings them as close to reality as a person’s breath.