Darina (Dasha) Sikmashvili was born in Lubny, Ukraine, and raised in Brooklyn, New York, where she moved at age eight.

Her writing has been generously supported by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Elizabeth George Foundation, among others. She's received fellowships from The Center for Fiction and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, among others. Sikmashvili completed her MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers Program.

She's worked in film and TV for over a decade. She works as an editor at Hewes House and as a writing instructor at New York University.