Sharon Edge Martin has been a writer since she wrote her first poems at the age of eight. She has worked as a waitress, an artist’s model, a musician, a bookkeeper, a jewelry designer, a newspaper editor, and a teacher, but no matter what other job she is doing, Martin is always a writer.
Maybe it’s genetic. Her grandmother would tuck her into bed at night quoting the poetry of Burns and Tennyson, Poe and Longfellow. Her father wrote short stories and her mother wrote songs. But it was her sixth grade teacher, Healion Toaz, who taught her that real people write books. Mrs. Toaz’s book? Historic Cemeteries of Oklahoma.
Martin got her first writing gig in high school when she wrote a weekly column for the Sulphur Times-Democrat. She wrote her first magazine article while she was a college freshman in Oklahoma City. While she raised her son and daughter, Martin published dozens of articles in such magazines as Outside, True West, Family Circle, and Oklahoma Today.
Martin’s fiction stories have appeared in adult and juvenile magazines, including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Her poetry for children and adults has been published in Amelia, Byline, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and dozens of small press and literary magazines and anthologies, including Elegant Rage, Dragon Poet Review, Malpais Review, Poets’ Market from Writers’ Digest Books, and in Michael Bugeja’s The Art and Craft of Poetry. Her poetry chapbook, No Sanctuary, was published by Amelia Press in 1997. In 2017, Froggy Bottom Blues, a picture book illustrated by Timothy Lange, was published by Doodle and Peck. In 2018, Village Books Press published her book of poetry, Not a Prodigal. Her latest book, also from Village Books Press, is I’ve Got the Blues: Looking for Justice in a Red State.
Martin has a M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction from Oklahoma State University and is a certified reading specialist. She has spent the last 17 years teaching.
Martin is an active member of SCBWI Oklahoma and is past president of Oklahoma Writers’ Federation. In addition to her writing for children and young adults, she pens a weekly column on education and politics. The essays appear regularly in The Oklahoma Observer. She is active in the spoken poetry scene in Oklahoma and hosts a monthly reading in the historic Tidal School. The building, now owned by Tidewater Winery, was commissioned by John D. Rockefeller to serve the children of his oil company employees.
Sharon and her husband, artist Dale Martin, live on a farm in Oklahoma. When she isn’t writing, you can find her tending chickens or working in her garden.
Follow me across the web on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
You can read my essays on living and eating well in the new dystopia at apocalypse farm.us
My current events essays can be found at The Oklahoma Observer.
Froggy Bottom Blues is available from Doodle and Peck and Amazon.
Not a Prodigal is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
I’ve Got the Blues: Looking for Justice in a Red State is available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Sharon Edge Martin 