Sheryl Monks

Sheryl Monks is a writer and the former co-owner/​editor of Press 53, an independent literary publisher in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She holds an MFA in writing from Queens University of Charlotte and a BA in English from Salem College, where she currently serves on the board for the Center for Women Writers. She has worked with both well-known and emerging authors and developed a strong line of literary fiction at Press 53, establishing it as one of the many outstanding small presses in the US. She teaches Expository Writing and a humanities course on Southern Culture at Wilkes Community College. She also coordinates literary events for the Yadkin County Arts Council and WILKES READS TOGETHER, a community read program sponsored by the Wilkes County Public Library, Wilkes Community College, and the Cultural Arts Council of Wilkes.

Sheryl's fiction has earned recognition and awards, including a Northwest NC Regional Artist's Project Grant, the Reynolds Price Short Fiction Award, and finalist recognition in literary contests sponsored by Backwards City Review and VERB: An Audioquarterly. In 2006, she was a finalist for the Headlands Writer-in-Residence Fellowship. Work has appeared or is forthcoming in RE:AL — Regarding Arts and Letters, Backwards City Review, Southern Gothic online, Surreal South, Fried Chicken and Coffee, Night Train, and other publications. Her story "Justice Boys" was named a Notable Story of 2009 in the storySouth Million Writers Award competition.

She is currently writing a novel set in McDowell County, West Virginia.