Megan Schikora grew up filling notebooks and devouring novels. She earned a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan and a M.A. in English with a creative writing concentration from Wayne State University. After working for several years in the mental health field, she became a writing instructor, all the while squeezing her own writing into the margins of her time. Twelve years into teaching, she decided to shift her focus from students’ writing to her own.
Her debut novel, A Woman in Pink, is a Writing Award Short List choice for the 2023 Page Turner Awards. Her short fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications, including The Rumpus, Literary Review, Hidden Peak Press, Exacting Clam, and Flash Fiction Magazine, and her story “The Wedding Photo” was longlisted for the Folly 2023 International Short Story Competition. Her story “Sticks and Stones” won the F(r)iction 2022 Short Story Contest, and her essay “An Unlikely Trio in the Animal Kingdom” placed third in prose in the New South 2020 Annual Writing Contest. Her work was also nominated for a 2019 Pushcart Prize and Sundress Publications’ Best of the Net 2014. After making her way to Italy, New York, and Illinois for various adventures, she is settled in her native Michigan, where she lives with her daughter.
She is working on her second novel and can’t imagine ever giving up short stories and personal essays. Although she has been scolded for her excessive use of exclamation points, she can’t resist their ardor and exuberance. She also enjoys the possibilities in ellipses & hopes the ampersand will make a comeback.
