Sharlee grew up on a farm in northeastern Utah. She graduated from Brigham Young University and then did graduate work in Humanities with emphases in English and Art History. She taught at BYU for a number of years before turning her focus to writing. 

Sharlee has published articles, essays, poems, and short stories for adults in periodicals such as Women’s Studies, The Southern Literary Journal, and Segullah. Her primary focus, though, is writing for children. Her stories have appeared in Cricket and Ladybug magazines and she has published picture books and middle grade novels. Her picture books include One in a Billion (Horizon), Keeping up with Roo (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), winner of the Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award, and Just What Mama Needs (Harcourt), featured on the EMMY award-winning PBS children's show, Between the Lions. Her most recent publication is a nonfiction picture book entitled Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America's First Bookmobile (Abrams), winner of the 2020 Sugarman Children's Biography Honor award.

Sharlee Glenn and her husband, James, are the parents of five above-average children and seven perfect grandchildren. They live in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Sharlee loves books, hiking, yoga, parentheses, and all things chocolate.