writer.
Crafting stories that reshape modern matriarchy.
Two-time Voices of our nation Arts alum and 2023 SCMF-SWF Ohio Writers Scholarship Winner, Shaheen Sheik-Sadhal, was born in Cleveland to South Indian immigrants. Her work explores the South Asian diaspora’s immigration stories, feminism and matriarchy, and celebrates the diversity of the human experience. Shaheen lives in SoCal with her husband, their two children, and a lazy English lab.
Workshops/Awards
2025 The Seventh Wave Digital Writing Residency
2024 Finalist for the Kenyon Review Developmental Editing Fellowship in Nonfiction
Tin House Winter Workshop, Memoir with Jeannie Vanasco, February 2024
2023 Recipient of the Sandra Carpenter Memorial Fund – Stockholm Writers Festival Ohio Writers Scholarship Award
Vona Voices Summer Workshop 2022, Prose Residency with Michael Thomas
Vona Voices Summer Workshop 2021, Memoir Residency with Jaquira Diaz
1985-Fireflies
“Our brown, skinny legs moved like a Daddy Long Legs, delicate and specific in how and where we placed our feet. We played. I listened: to crickets and frogs off in the distance, creating a soundscape for the fireflies’ dance, to the way Aarti’s flip flops clapped the concrete sidewalk, to the low talking and whispering my mom and aunty did on these summer walks; I listened as they vented about their problems and remembered the struggles they had when they came to America.”