Sharon DeBartolo Carmack is a Certified Genealogist® with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction Writing, a Diploma in Irish Studies from the National University of Ireland–Galway, and an Advanced Diploma from the Spiritualists’ National Union in the UK for her thesis on Maria B. Hayden. She also holds a Certificate from the Spiritualists’ National Union International for inspirational speaking and demonstrating mediumship.

To her knowledge, Sharon is the only person in the U.S. with credentials in both genealogy and mediumship.

Sharon has been a Certified Genealogist® for more than thirty years. She is a partner in the Salt Lake City-based research, writing, editing, and publishing firm of Warren, Carmack & Associates, the owner of Nonfiction Help, and the executive editor of Scattered Leaves Press.

As part of the adjunct faculty at Salt Lake Community College, Sharon developed and teaches five online courses: Tracing Immigrant Origins, Writing Life Stories, Genealogy and Family History Writing, and Preparing for Certified Genealogist I and II.

She is also the author of twenty-four books and hundreds of articles, essays,  columns, and reviews that have appeared in nearly every major genealogical journal and publication. Some of Sharon’s books include Tell It Short: A Guide to Writing Your Family History in Brief, You Can Write Your Family History, and her essay collection, Inheriting the Gordon Hips.

Additionally, her work has appeared in many writing and literary publications: Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, Hippocampus Magazine (where her essay, “Switched at Midlife” won “Most Memorable” and was one of ten essays selected for the Best of Hippocampus), Portland Review, Steinbeck Review, Writer’s Digest, Personal Journaling, and Phoebe: A Journal of Literature and Art (where her essay received Honorable Mention in the annual Creative Nonfiction Contest). Sharon’s essays have been finalists in contests for the Bellingham Review’s Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction and in Creative Nonfiction’s True Crime contest.

She was also the recipient of the John McIndoe Prize from the Spiritualists’ National Union and The Olive Haywood Award for Achievement from the Darlington SNU Church in the UK, both for her thesis on Maria B. Hayden.

Sharon can be contacted at sdcarmack@gmail.com.