Sheila J. Sadr’s poetry is only the most visible manifestation of her creative drive. As an educator and therapist-in-training, she is deeply grounded in her local community and the poetry world of Southern California.  That same restorative energy animates her debut collection Birthday Girl, winner of the 2018 Stories Award for Poetry. In this healing probe into femininity, Sheila J. Sadr questions and reinvents gender expectations as skillfully as poetic forms. This book is for anyone engaged in the strange survival of themselves and others, and it’s also a beautiful addition to a new tradition of Iranian-American poetry alongside writers like Kaveh Akbar, Anis Mojgani, and Solmaz Sharif. It’s a joy to bring Sheila J. Sadr’s poems to a larger audience, but given her determination, we know that this book would exist if she had to pulp the paper herself.

An emerging poet that has long engaged in the Los Angeles literary and education scenes. Deeply engaged with community planning, events, readings, and youth literary programs.

"Sheila J. Sadr writes with her guts. She writes with the parts of self that many of us run from, and yet, it is incredibly beautiful and powerful. Sheila dissects her body, her family, and her own heart as she announces her graduation from girlhood into a dragon, into a fierce ball of fire. Blessed be her heart, its celebration, and its homecoming all bound in this beautiful collection." –Yesika Salgado, Author of Corazón