Sharon Hashimoto was born on October 23, 1953, in Seattle, Washington. She has lived all her life in the Pacific Northwest. She holds two bachelor degrees, one in modern European history and the other in editorial journalism, both from the University of Washington. In 1990, Hashimoto also received a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Washington.

Hashimoto was encouraged to pursue an interest in poetry by many other writers such as Nelson Bentley, Lonny Kaneko, Alan Chong Lau, and James Masao Mitsui. Enjoying the challenges of wordplay and imagery, she seeks to capture small but important moments in everyday life.

In 1989, while still in graduate school, where she was studying with Colleen McElroy, David Wagoner, and Shawn Wong, Hashimoto's poetry was awarded a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Hashimoto also studied fiction writing. Her poems have appeared in...