Shannon Reed is a writer and professor living in a small town just outside Pittsburgh.

Shannon grew up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and lived in Brooklyn for 14 years, where she taught high school English and Theatre. In 2012, she began studying with the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh, where she completed an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) in 2015. She joined the faculty shortly thereafter, and is now the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Writing Program in the University of Pittsburgh, as well as a Teaching Associate Professor, specializing in fiction and humor writing courses.

Shannon’s first book, Why Did I Get a B?: And Other Mysteries We’re Discussing in the Faculty Lounge, was a semi-finalist for the Thurber Prize in American Humor. Her second, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out, publishes on February 6, 2024. It’s a Next Big Idea Club Must-Read Pick and will be featured in George Saunders’ Substack newsletter, Office Hours.

Shannon’s writing has been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (where one of her pieces was the most-read article in 2018, and another was in the Top Three in 2024), The Paris Review, The Washington Post, Slate, Buzzfeed, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and many other publications.