About the Author
Germaine Shames, holder of the Arizona Commission on the Arts’ Literary Fellowship in fiction, has written from six continents–soon to add the seventh–on topics ranging from the Middle East peace process to Nazi art looting, from the struggle to save the Amazon to the plight of street children.
Germaine is author of the critically acclaimed novel Between Two Deserts (Macadam/Cage Publishing) and two earlier nonfiction books.
Writing under the pen name Casper Silk (Hotel Noir, Echo Year) she has been called “cagey and poetic” and compared to such luminaries as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene and P.D. James “on steroids.”
Her articles have appeared in such publications as National Geographic Traveler, More, Success, Hemispheres, Byline and many others. Her essays and short fiction have been widely anthologized.
Germaine holds a masters degree in Intercultural Studies. As a global executive, and later as a foreign correspondent, she has lived and worked in such diverse locations as the Australian outback, Swiss Alps, interior of Bulgaria, coast of Colombia, Fiji Islands, and Gaza Strip. She brings a tender acuity to her journalism and has made a mission of covering under-reported stories of grassroots activism and everyday heroism. Her fiction writing reflects the breadth of her worldview and fascination with the interplay of cultures, often drawing on events and settings from her sojourns abroad.
A former theater major, art school student, and arts reviewer, Germaine has long written in images. She returned to college in mid-career to study screenwriting and has completed three feature film scripts. The earliest of these, The Degenerates, placed in the 2009 Nicholl Fellowship competition and has been called “powerful and assured” by producer Victoria Lucas (Island on Bird Street, Black Dahlia).
Germaine’s weekly radio spot, “From the Heart,” aired on WSUS, reaching listeners in three Eastern states. She has been interviewed in print, on radio, and on network, public broadcast and cable television.
Current projects include The Abstract Life, a literary ghost novel chronicling the histrionic rise and fall of Abstract Expressionism and a musical theater adaptation of her award-winning novel, You, Fascinating You.