Shannon Reed is the author of Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries and Just One More Page Before Lights Out (2/6/24) and Why Did I Get a B? And Other Mysteries We're Discussing in the Faculty Lounge (6/30/20). A frequent contributor of humor to The New Yorker and McSweeney's Internet Tendency, her "If People Talked to Other Professionals the Way They Talked to Teachers" was the most-read piece at McSweeney's in 2018. She has also written for The Paris Review, The Washington Post, Slate, Buzzfeed, and many other venues.

Since 2012, Shannon has taught at the University of Pittsburgh in the Creative Writing and Composition programs, part of the English Department. She is currently the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Writing Program and a Teaching Associatge Professor. Before arriving at Pitt, she taught preschool in Johnstown, Pennsylvania (her hometown) and Tribeca (not her hometown), as well as high school in Queens and Brooklyn. She holds a BFA in Theatre: Acting and Directing from Otterbein University; an MA in Educational Theatre from NYU; and an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh in Creative Writing: Fiction.

You can often find her reading.