About


Basically, I was born to straddle divides. My mother is Mexican, my father German (both are first-generation Americans). I am descended from murderers, border jumpers, bootleggers, artists and brujas. I'm a cis pansexual in a heteronormative relationship. I suffer from multiple chronic illnesses. Even my hometown occupies two states. So I'm too white to be Latina and too Latina to be white, too queer to be straight but too straight to be queer, too sick to be fully alive but too alive to be dead, too introverted to be a social butterfly but too extroverted to be a hermit, and too late to be Gen X but too early to be a millennial. Is it any wonder I'm a perpetrator of drive-by poetry and other senseless literary acts? (Also, is it any wonder that I can't commit to a single genre?) 

Things that I definitely am: a night owl, a foodie, a walking sweet tooth, a serious binge-watcher, and a dedicated psychonaut exploring a shamanic path. (Again, walking between worlds.) I collect Mexican folk art. I've been a prison volunteer. It took me thirteen years to earn my bachelor's degree; it may take me another thirteen to recover. When not writing, I enjoy reading, art, films, photography, walks in the woods, mushrooms, bugs, and all things horror/weird/occult. I live with six demanding felines and one extremely laidback husband. The eight of us call Kansas City, MO home.  


Currently, I am a senior editor at Gleam: A Journal of the Cadralor

Best of editions/features/editor's choice honors include: Referential, The Broke Bohemian, Isacoustic, Loud Zoo Magazine, Two Lungs Publication's International Women's Day Edition, Schlock!, The Woven Tale Press, The Voice of Eve, POETiCA REViEW, and Lothlorien Journal Vol. 1, 5 and 20.

I am the recipient of a Rhysling Award, the Seamus Burns Creative Writing Prize, the Door is a Jar Poetry Award, the Gerard Manley Hopkins Award, and a fellowship from Rockhurst University for fiction. I received an honorable mention in the 2022 SFPA Speculative Poetry Contest and was a finalist in the 2022 Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Contest. Nominations include eight Best of the Nets, five Pushcart Prizes, seven Rhysling Awards, and an Elgin Award, as well as a Grindspolitation Festival nomination for best song. 

I have been published in 12 countries on 6 continents. My work has also made it to the Top 100 for the 2021 Lumiere Review Poetry Contest, the 2022 Bag of Bones 206-Word Story Competition shortlist, the 2022 Laureate Prize longlist (Harbor Editions), and the Top 50 for the Roadmap Writers Short Story Competition. 

Nineteen of my books are currently available from Amazon and other retailers. New releases include: Screaming Intensifies (Whiskey City Press), and the In the King's Power series (self-published).


Contact me:
laurenscharhag@gmail.com