authors Sharma Shields & simeon wells, readers carissa meagher & ian c. hopps, may 31, 2019

Author Sharma Shields, Author Simeon Mills, Reader Carissa Meagher & Reader Ian C. Hopps

Stories on Stage Sacramento is thrilled to welcome back Sharma Shields Shields, with a reading from her new novel, The Cassandra, and to welcome for the first time her husband Simeon Mills, with a reading from his debut novel The Obsoletes. Both novels plunge us into twisty real worlds: The Cassandrais a modern re-telling of the Cassandra myth, set in the Hanford nuclear research center during World War II, and The Obsoletes imagines two robot brothers trying to pass for human in a small, robot-phobic Midwestern town. Carissa Meagher and Ian C. Hopps will read excerpts from their work.

Friday, May 31, 2019 
Auditorium at CLARA
1425 24th Street
Doors open at 7PM, readings begin at 7:30
A $10 donation is suggested 

About our writers
Sharma Shields is the writer of a short story collection, Favorite Monster, and two novels, The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac and The Cassandra. Sharma’s short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Electric Lit, Catapult, Slice, Fairy Tale Review, Kenyon Review, Iowa Review, Fugue, and elsewhere and have garnered such awards as the 2016 Washington State Book Award, the Autumn House Fiction Prize, the Tim McGinnis Award for Humor, a Grant for Artist Projects from Artist Trust, and the A.B. Guthrie Award for Outstanding Prose. She received her B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington (2000) and her MFA from the University of Montana (2004). Sharma has worked in independent bookstores and public libraries throughout Washington State and lives in Spokane with her husband, writer Simeon Mills, and two children.

Simeon Mills is a writer, cartoonist, and teacher. His debut prose novel The Obsoletes was published May 14 by Skybound Books. His graphic novel Butcher Paper received a 2012 Artist Trust grant. Chapters of Butcher Paper have appeared in The Florida Review, RiverLit, Rock & Sling, The Pinch Journal, and Okey-Panky. He majored in architecture at Columbia University and received his MFA in fiction from the University of Montana. Mills teaches drawing at Eastern Washington University and middle school English in Spokane, Washington, where he lives with his wife, writer Sharma Shields, and two children.    

About our readers
Carissa Meagher makes her Stories on Stage Sacramento debut with a reading from Sharma Shields’ The Cassandra, Carissa is a familiar face to Sacramento theatergoers, who have enjoyed her performances in Antigone (Big Idea Theatre); Brilliant Traces (Ovation Stage); An Octoroon and Anna Karenina (Capital Stage) and Steel Magnolias (Sacramento Theatre Company.) She’s also appeared in The Little Prince and Henry IV  at The Theater at Monmouth in Maine, and in Dutchmanand Dying City at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she earned her BFA in Acting. Carissa holds an MFA in Playwriting from Ireland’s RADA affiliate school, The Lir Academy. Next up you can catch Carissa’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey at Sacramento Theatre Company.

Ian C. Hopps is a familiar face to Sacramento and Davis audiences. Since his 2016 move to Sacramento from the Bay Area, he’s appeared in leading roles with Capital Stage (Luna Gale, Stupid F***ing Bird,) the Sacramento Theatre Company (Midsummer Night’s Dream, as Puck: Macbeth, The Tempest) and Big Idea Theatre (The Rover, An Ideal Husband, The 39 Steps.) He’s the associate producer and marketing director of the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble and has appeared in numerous productions there. He studied Theatre Arts at San Francisco State University, and in addition to acting, he writes for indie comics and podcasts, and produces his own music.