“Sheila writes nonfiction prose that rivals the work of John McPhee, Joan Didion, and Edward Hoagland. Her nonfiction work explores many layers, such as myth, science, legend, and linguistics, while always maintaining a close personal narrative thread.”
~ Debra Marquart,
Poet Laureate of Iowa
"Smart characters and intricate plotting."
~ Booklist on Sheila's novel Catwalk
Sheila Webster Boneham has written nonfiction, fiction, and poetry for academic, literary, and commercial markets. Her work has earned her a North Carolina Arts Council fellowship, the Prime Number Magazine Award for Creative Nonfiction and six Maxwell and MUSE awards for fiction and nonfiction from the professional organizations for dog and cat writers. Sheila's essays, short stories, and poems have appeared in the 2015 Best American Science and Nature Writing, Red Earth Review, The Written River Journal of Eco-poetics, The Wayfarer, Minerva Rising, and elsewhere.
The four novels in her Animals in Focus mystery series have earned much praise for their accurate portrayals of nonhuman characters. She has also written 17 nonfiction books about dogs, cats, and animal rescue.
Sheila has taught writing for more decades than she cares to divulge. Sheila is the Founder and Director of the Three Rivers Writers Studio, which offers online and in person workshops and classes for writers at all levels, and offers individual mentoring for a select few writers.
She holds a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University and MFA in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast Program.