Meet 2026 SCBWI-MI Novel Writing Mentor Sheela Chari

Editor's Note: The application period for the 2026 SCBWI-MI novel mentorship with author Sheela Chari opens January 2, 2026 (with the winner announced in April). Today's you can get to know a little bit more about our mentor, Sheela.

What made you decide to become an author?

From a young age, I loved escaping into stories, whether it meant reading them or making up my own. Books were important, and so were the places where I interacted with them — in my own room and in libraries at school and in town. One of my fondest childhood memories is taking the bus to the Iowa City Public Library and meeting my best friend there to check out tons of books!

In college, I became more serious about making writing my career and life work after taking an intro fiction workshop. That class changed my life. From then on, I took more classes and went on to get my MFA. It would be another 10 years after that before I published my first novel. But certainly I credit the library, the hours of alone time to think up stories during my childhood, and those classes in college that opened the world of fiction writing for me.

What do you like best about writing novels?

I love that first stage when an idea is fresh and you are just discovering it, following it along, and somehow this idea knows where it’s going and you have to give it room, energy, and enough unconditional, non-judgmental love. That’s the best! The second best is when the draft is all done, everything is in place, and the revision process is where you are chiseling away to get to the story within. I can spend days and days in this phase of revising and refining, until I get to the last draft.

What do you like least?

Oh, the idea stage, the revision stage, the end stage. Does that sound like what I like the best? That sounds about right. Writing is hard work. It’s hard because the joy and the uncertainty are so tightly bound together.

Describe a typical writing day.

I wish I had a typical day. I’ll describe the one I aspire to, and maybe this happens about half the time: I sit down at my desk in the morning around 9:30 am and I write for two hours. I divide this into thirty-minute sessions with a few minutes of break in between. After that I tend to the rest of the day: lunch, picking up my daughter from school, errands, meals, etc. If I’m lucky, I get another hour in the afternoon or in the evening. I try to exercise in the mornings before I write, and/go for a walk after lunch.

I also teach in the Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA program at VCFA, so there are weeks when I’m working on packets from students, which means reading and commenting on their creative pages, critical essays, and reading annotations. Since teaching is how I learn best, these packet weeks really do inform my work as a writer. 

When you're reading for pleasure, what features of a book typically impress you the most?

I love epistolary writing — letters, emails, texts, any kind of “found” documents and multiple formats of writing all smashed together. I love a beautifully constructed graphic novel. Those are some formats I tend to gravitate towards, though I do like conventional prose novels, too. In terms of content, I enjoy historical fiction, humor, and any kind of plot-twisting, atypical, surprising storytelling. I adore emotionally rich characters who are unconventional, with big feelings, and who despite it all strive ahead.

What inspires you?

A great way for me to fill the well is a day spent in the city (any vibrant city) eating good food, visiting a museum, and hearing a music concert.

What aspects of being a novel mentor are you most looking forward to?

I love to teach! Teaching and learning go hand in hand, so I look forward to engaging with another writer’s world, and collaborating with them to find the story, and guide their characters on a set of interactions, reflections, and actions that best serve that story. It’s often a process of trial and error, built on mutual trust. Teaching has also taught me to be a good listener, to learn how to attune to the needs of the student or mentee who is trusting me with their work.

Can you tell us about any upcoming projects?

I’m working on a number of projects and hope to share them with the world soon! :)