Shannon Sanders

@shanders.bsky.social

3074 Followers 1669 Following

THE GREAT WHEREVER (forthcoming from Holt, summer ‘26); COMPANY, 2024 winner of the L.A.Times Book Prizes Award for First Fiction: https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/company. Mom, twin mom, lawyer, Silver Springer. She/her

Email that reads: Hi Shannon, My name is XXXX and I am the Lead Organizer of the Düsseldorf Book Club in Germany, a community of over 2,400 passionate readers who meet every month to discover and discuss books they love. I came across Company and I have not stopped thinking about it since. The way you examine what it means to keep company with others, the obligations, the performances, and the quiet longing underneath social life, is something our readers find both uncomfortably familiar and deeply illuminating. The social precision in your writing is the kind that makes people put the book down and look at the people around them differently. We are finalizing our April event this Saturday and we are selecting only five authors, each featured in their own dedicated section of the event hall. Company is one of the titles we are seriously considering for this month. That said, if there is another book of yours you feel better represents your work right now, we are completely open to featuring that instead. Featuring Company this April – Düsseldorf Book Club, would you be open to it?
In this six-week fiction workshop, each participant will workshop a short story or novel excerpt of up to 5,000 words, with discussions focusing on elements of fiction such as story structure, character development, exposition, and dialogue. We’ll zoom in on practical revision ideas that help participants to meet their individual writing goals, including submitting for publication. Depending on interest, we’ll also engage in craft exercises such as close readings of published short fiction. We’ll meet on Zoom from 7–9:30 each Tuesday night from April 14 through May 19. Come prepared to be thoughtful, kind, and open-minded about others’ submissions! This class is limited to 10 students and is designed for writers with workshop experience. Tuition includes a 30-minute meeting with the instructor.
Flyer for an AWP panel called “What Would Really Happen? Crafting Scenes Your Readers Believe,” scheduled for 3/7 at 10:35 AM in Room 329 of the Baltimore Convention Center
Galley of Shannon Sanders’s THE GREAT WHEREVER lying atop a hand knit scarf of the same color (olive green)
A gold chain with three oval gold charms: a heart with the word LOVE, an eye with the word PROTECTION, and a honeybee with the word WISDOM
Image of the cover of THE GREAT WHEREVER by Shannon Sanders, to be published on 7/7/26, over a Debutiful background with title “Most anticipated debut books of 2026”
Beginning of an AI-generated scam/spam email: “Message: Hi Shannon, I just finished Company, and I can’t get over how effortlessly the Collins family comes alive on the page. Only Amazon could bury a collection that moves from Atlantic City to New York to DC across decades, blending the joys, sorrows, competitions, and secrets of a Black family with such wit, precision, and emotional resonance. Each story lands like a perfectly timed guest arriving at a house unexpected, illuminating, and impossible to forget.”
Virtual waiting room to log onto the county’s activity registration site. Registration opens at 6:30 am and one false move and you lose your place in line
Homemade Spin suit top made of a black pajama shirt, red felt, and silver fabric paint
Homemade costume in progress surrounded by dogshit attempts at drawing a symmetrical freehand spider
“AI gets them going and writes the first paragraph, or first chapter, and gets them back in the zone,” he said. “And it can do similar things with painting and music composition and with almost all of the creative arts.”
Spotted lanternflies made of felt and marker
Handmade cardboard cutout of a spotted lanternfly
Meme of Dr. Oz saying “Turns out that about one-third of families don’t have the number of babies they desire. They’re under-babied.”
Interior of Politics & Prose set up for Brandon Taylor’s book event; photographer has a knitting project in her lap
Pinned Threads post by a “writer” named Whitney which appears to actually be an AI bot profile attempting to sell creative writers on AI as something that can drive our passions. Whitney is an AI-generated image of a conventionally pretty Black woman with long, wavy hair.
Cover of Company, a collection of short stories by Shannon Sanders
Birds Eye selfie from the bathroom of the Strathmore music venue in Rockville, MD
Storefront with stickers: “Mask Required,” “Best of D.C.,” and “Black Owned Business”
List of terms used in Shannon Sanders’s forthcoming novel THE GREAT WHEREVER
Screenshot of a Threads post where some dude is celebrating that Florida erased a beautiful mural of the words “Black History Matters” (which he seems to think says Black Lives Matter).
Uncorrected bound manuscript of Shannon Sanders’s THE GREAT WHEREVER, a novel coming out in July 2026
Hi, Carolyn: My partner and I are part of a broad community of friends and acquaintances in our 30s and 40s who live in the same part of the city. I feel very fortunate to have such a big social world. I try to entertain often, either for dinner or TV or board games. Many of my friends have kids. My partner and I don’t have or want kids, and frankly I find it to be a huge challenge to host kids, especially ones old enough to walk but not old enough not to whine or make a mess if left unsupervised. Sometimes this just means I invite some families much less often — and certainly never more than one family at a time. But sometimes, especially for board games, I’d like to be able to issue broad invitations to a bunch of adults but exclude younger kids.
Empty grocery store shelf where sunbutter belongs
Michael Patrick King
Email from NEA indicating that the Creative Writing Fellowships program has been canceled and my application won’t be reviewed
Cover of Mark Doten’s short story collection Whites
Cover of Mark Doten’s short story collection Whites
A hand handing a gold choker with elongated 70s-style links and three small hammered gold charms over a bedspread
Screenshot of a Mercor job posting for a fiction writer to help train AI content. Qualifications listed include 2+ years’ experience and a portfolio of published work.
Email from Etsy with subject line “Remember me?” in large letters, over a photo of a pile of currants
Screenshot of a Threads post by squidgeyyarnco asking why millennials don’t post the T in certain words
Cover of Bruce Holsinger’s CULPABILITY
Excerpt from a Financial Times article on AI in publishing: “For Hall, frustration at the UK government’s approach to AI has led to her own innovation. “The Society of Authors campaigned for AI-generated work to be labelled, but now it’s not going to be.” Earlier this year its US counterpart, the Authors Guild launched a “human authorship mark”. So, Hall says, “Now it’s on us to assert our humanity.” Helm will be published with what she calls a “maker’s mark” on the cover: a small circle containing the words “HUMAN WRITTEN”. “It will assert the craftwork that’s gone into it, the human quality — provenance, authenticity, integrity.”
Screenshot of a tweet by Bizlet saying the only way to fix fertility rates is to make women economically dependent on their husbands
The cover of a galley of Erin Somers’s novel The Ten Year Affair (cover depicts two pairs of hands flirting with each other)
“Justice Dept. Asks for 1-Day Sentence for Ex-Officer Convicted in the Killing of Breonna Taylor The move was a stunning reversal of Biden-era efforts to address racial disparities in law enforcement. Brett Hankison had discharged several shots through Taylor’s window during a drug raid gone awry.”
Handknit baby sweater in a yellow-to-blue fade. Elbow-length sleeves and very stretchy hems
Lucy and Shannon sitting at a table crowded with takeaway boxes, kids’ water bottles, crayons, and empty wineglasses
6 itty-bitty finger eggplants next to a hand for scale
Dear Carolyn: My husband and I are in our early 40s and are happily child-free. We are both professionally successful; we have a large, meticulously appointed home and backyard with a pool; and we have two large dogs, whom we love dearly. The problem is that our adult siblings and friends believe their children are entitled to our time and the amenities that our home offers.
Father of three young kids (smiling, wearing glasses, hair cut short) taking an outdoor selfie in a T-shirt covered with Easter eggs
Stand at the zoo advertising cocktails, craft beer, lemonade, and coffee
Black shirtdress on a mannequin with an extremely long belt
“The article is not bylined but was written by Marco Buscaglia, whose name is on most of the other articles in the 64-page section. Buscaglia told 404 Media via email and on the phone that the list was AI-generated. “I do use AI for background at times but always check out the material first. This time, I did not and I can't believe I missed it because it's so obvious. No excuses,” he said. “On me 100 percent and I'm completely embarrassed.””
Two handknit toddler sweaters on a blocking mat, drying in the sun on a porch
“My creative processes have exploded with new ideas and storylines. The AI tools have helped me harness and bring to fruition what I see in my head but need a little help bringing fully to life.”
“I use it for generating plot and plot twist ideas; refining word choice; making grammar corrections; drafting passages and scene descriptions; rewriting passages (“originally X was happening, but now I’ve changed the story so Y is happening — please rewrite this paragraph to reflect this change”); generating character names and drafting character profiles; getting writing feedback and advice. But none of this is just blind “generate me some text so I can use it for my novel” — it’s all reviewed/accepted/rejected to stay within my voice and vision. In the past, I might find myself stuck for days trying to resolve problems — now, I have a writing partner who always has advice and suggestions.”
Landing page for virtual waiting room to the county summer registration website, counting down to the 6:30 AM start time
Four handknit sweaters in various stages of completion
Trader Joe’s flower sale rack, totally empty one day before Mother’s Day
Hand-knit sweater body (no sleeves or collar)
Movie seating chart showing only two available seats, one 25 seats squared away from the other
“If I had had two small children already, the costs associated with keeping them in childcare during a period of 50% family income (“unpaid maternity leave”) must be counted here as you can’t simply give up a coveted daycare spot and assume it’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready to resume. Doing that with two, you might as well book a flight to Vegas and bet the entirety of their tuition on 00. We would also need to purchase at least one larger vehicle, as we can’t afford to move to an area with better public transit or more walkable infrastructure. That vehicle, on the conservative end, would be several thousand dollars down plus a monthly car payment. We would also need, depending on the gap in ages between children, a new car seat, at least one new bed, and based on the size of our home, to potentially start looking at larger houses.”
Photo of a bird perched in a tree. The bird is black with bright red shoulders
“One proposal shared with aides would reserve 30 percent of scholarships for the Fulbright program, the prestigious, government-backed international fellowship, for applicants who are married or have children. Another would give a $5,000 cash “baby bonus” to every American mother after delivery.”
Sign featuring Shannon Sanders beside an image of her book cover, leaned against a small suitcase in an airport terminal