Huma Sheikh was born in war-torn Kashmir. A recipient of fellowships from Callaloo (Brown University), the William Joiner Institute (UMass Boston), the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the East-West Center (Hawaii), she has also studied literary nonfiction with Christina Thompson at Harvard.

She has served as assistant online editor for The Southeast Review, fiction screener for Orison Books, editor for the Journal on Kashmiri Literature and Diasporic Writing, and worked as a stringer and reporter for Plain Talk weekly and Ka Leo newspapers in South Dakota and Hawaii.

After earning a degree in journalism, Sheikh worked with United News of India, Hindustan Times, Press Trust of India, and Xinhua News in Beijing. She holds a Master’s in Journalism and Communication Studies from the University of South Dakota, a Master’s in English Literature from Texas A&M University, a Master’s in Creative Writing from Long Island University (Brooklyn), and a PhD in English from Florida State University.

Sheikh is the winner of the Adam M. Johnson Fellowship and the Charles Gordone Award. Her poem “My Legs are Salwar Starchy” was selected by the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) as a featured read for Arab American Heritage Month. Her memoir was a finalist at Black Lawrence Press and Sundress Publications, and her poetry collection was shortlisted for the Our Own Chapbook Prize by Radix Media.

Her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Consequence, Prism International, Cincinnati Review, Arrowsmith, Rumpus, and others. Her poetry collection and memoir are both forthcoming.

Sheikh has taught as Visiting Teaching Faculty in the Department of English at Florida State University. She currently teaches writing at George Mason University.