Shemaiah Gonzalez is a writer with degrees in English Literature (BA) , Intercultural Ministry (MAPS) and Creative Non-Fiction Writing (MFA). She thrives in moments where storytelling, art, literature, and faith collide. Her work has appeared in America Magazine, Image Journal’s Good Letters, Ekstasis, The Curator, and Loyola Press, among others. She is currently writing a memoir, in the tradition of St. Augustine’s Confessions, it is written as a prayer. Obsessed with being well-rounded she jumps from Victorian Lit to Kendrick Lamar, from the homeless shelter to the cocktail party. A Los Angeles native, she now lives in Seattle with her husband and their two sons.
In 2018 her story about her college English professor was selected by Pope Francis to be included in his book Sharing The Wisdom of Time.
Nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize for her flash non-fiction essay, Dios Mio in Whale Road Review.
In 2020 joined Whale Road Review as a CNF peer reviewer.
In 2021 served as a contributing editor for prose for The Curator Magazine.
Awarded an Honorable Mention Catholic Press Award in for Best Spiritual Life Column in 2021 for her Northwest Catholic God in the Ordinary.
Presented at 2022 Catholic Imagination Conference on her biography on beloved NW Catholic writer, Brian Doyle.
Awarded Third Place Catholic Media Award for Best Regular Column-Spiritual Life in 2023 for her Northwest Catholic God in the Ordinary column.
Currently working on Undaunted Joy, a collection of essays for Zondervan/Harper Collins exploring a fresh view on life, through her own experiences and discovery of finding joy in both the ordinary and mysterious. In energetic prose, Gonzalez finds delight in naps, her middle school sons’ morphing bodies, and encounters with strangers—and encourages readers to see the joy present in these moments as well. When we turn our attention to the joy around us, she suggests, we become attuned to God’s constant presence with us and in all these things. Coming in 2025