Rebecca Sheir's radio stories have won numerous awards, including the Third Coast International Audio Festival Directors' Choice Award.  They are frequently broadcast on public radio programs around the country, including All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Marketplace, The Splendid Table, Latino USA, Here & Now, and Only a Game.  

She lives in Washington, D.C., where she hosts Metro Connection on WAMU 88.5 (the National Capital Region's NPR station) and occasionally serves as a guest host on NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered.

“Sylvia Plath once remarked that “everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.” While I'm a big believer in guts and imagination, to Plath's list I might add “the mentors to inspire.” During my time in the University of Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program, I encountered no shortage of brilliant mentors -- both professors and fellow students -- who not only lit my spark for penning nonfiction, but kept it burning bright. And once I began moonlighting at Iowa City's local NPR station, the Nonfiction Writing Program offered me freedom to pursue what faculty member Jeff Porter would call my “speakerly” writing—both in courses I took, and courses I taught (such as my undergraduate radio essay/commentary course, “Radio Voices”). Seven years and countless radio interviews/stories/essays later, I can firmly attest that my guts are even more outgoing, my improvisation is even more imaginative, and my inspiration from the Nonfiction Writing Program stays with me to this day, both on and off the air.”