About Sheila
I’m not going to leave this world without my say.
Author, speaker, and advocate. Nurse for more than thirty years. Woman in her fifties becoming exactly who she was born to be.
Why I write
My mother was a storyteller. Before she died in 2022, I gave her one of those books where you write down your stories for the grandkids. After she was gone, I found it. She hadn’t skipped it. You could see where she’d tried, again and again, and the pen just ran off the page.
Her stories, her point of view, all of it went with her. I looked at that book and said: that’s not going to be me. I might not be great, but I’m going to do better.
So I started writing. I already had a dissertation and a pile of nonfiction behind me, but I’d always wanted to write fiction. Now there are three books on the shelf and more on the way.
I tell the truth sideways in my books. In person, I tell way too much truth right to your face. It’s a terrible affliction.
What I write about is the space between us: that split second where you choose which way to go, the thing that keeps you up at 3 a.m., the moment somebody who never thought they could do something finally does it. Nobody maps those moments out. They’re where real life happens.
And I’m in my fifties now, which means I’m right on time. I gave a lot of my life away to the people I love, and I’m not sorry for one minute of it. But now it’s my time.
Sheila in three sentences
I stand up for the little people.
Poverty, sickness, and hardship are only one decision away from any of us. The people who are a little broken are the ones who read my books best.
I say the thing.
People are afraid of death, of grief, of getting stuck. I say the thing anyway: in my books, on stage, and right to your face.
I do what I want.
I don’t care about genre, and I don’t want anybody telling me what to do. In my brain, I’m as wild as my curly hair.
Quick facts
- Doctorate in Education
- More than thirty years as a nurse
- Founder, Alabama Pet Pantry
- Host, Measured Differently podcast
- Literary Titan Book Award winner
- Black belt in karate
For organizers & press
Official bio
Use it in programs, introductions, and press materials.
Dr. Sheila Ray Montgomery is an award-winning author and internationally recognized nurse whose work lives in the quiet, powerful space between who we are, where we come from, and what we survive. She is the author of The Feral Butterfly (2025), Doryto and the Door of Wanderers (2026), and The Watershed Butterfly (2026), stories known for their emotional depth, layered characters, and haunting sense of recognition.
With a Doctorate in Education and more than thirty years in nursing, she brings both academic insight and lived experience to her work. As a speaker, she has addressed book clubs, libraries, senior centers, community organizations, nonprofits, and emergency care conferences, on topics from healthcare and food insecurity to personal growth and the value of work.
She is the founder of the Alabama Pet Pantry, a nonprofit that helps families keep their pets fed through times of hardship, and the host of Measured Differently, a podcast about what success really means in America.