We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shannon E. Stephan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shannon E. below.

Alright, Shannon E. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

I’ve always believed that in order to truly understand a person, you need to look at where they came from. I can remember concerning myself with the concept of mortality and legacy from a very young age. I grew up in a religious household and grappled nightly with the concept of death, Heaven, and Hell. When I was in elementary school, my beloved third grade teacher passed away after a long battle with cancer. Because I did not know how else to process this immense loss, I began to write poetry. A priest read the very first poem I ever wrote aloud at my teacher’s funeral, and her husband kept it in his suit pocket. I have used writing to cope with death and loss, and to make sense of the uncertainties in life ever since. However, it’s not necessarily the metaphors or symbolism in my writing that I want others to remember. It’s the person behind them.

Ultimately, I want my legacy to center around authenticity. Something I care very deeply about is that every person feels seen and heard. The stories and poems I have written, the book I published, the feedback I offer my students, the love letters I’ve given my husband, the journals I keep with letters to my children–all of these will serve as a sort of trail of breadcrumbs for the people I love to find me when I’m gone. Inside the pages, I want people to see themselves. I want them to read about the struggles I’ve grappled with through childhood, adolescence, religion, the workplace, mental illness, pregnancy, motherhood, postpartum, and realize that it is okay to not be perfect, but we must always keep striving to be our best selves. I hope that my students remember the importance of asking questions, of surrounding themselves with people who will lift them up and challenge them. I hope that every person who has been harmed by the evangelical church will read my book and recognize it was never their fault. I hope that any person who has had to silence suicidal ideations will see that I stayed, and maybe, if they hold on a little longer, they can stay, too.

I have no desire for my life to appear perfect or aesthetic; I want it to be real. I want my daughter to know that it’s fantastic to be a billionaire and to change lives on a global scale, but it’s just as important to break generational trauma, unlearn bad habits, and bring peace and comfort to the ones who live right in your home and community.

My son is on the high needs end of the autism spectrum, and sometimes, I can bring myself to write about him. I don’t know what his future looks like, and I certainly don’t know what his future will look like if I’m not there to protect him, nurture him, bathe him, feed him, make him laugh, or play his favorite songs. But my goal (beyond the obvious responsibility of making sure he is cared for and there are funds to support him after I’m gone) is to fill him with so much love and joy that it carries him through any years I’m not with him.

I think when I die, that people will say I was a good writer, a good wife, a good teacher, a good mother. And that’s good enough for me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I attended the University of South Florida after I graduated high school, earned my Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary English Education, and began my career as a high school English teacher in 2008. By day for the last 16 years, I have been Mrs. Rodriguez, and I work with students of all abilities and backgrounds to help them meet graduation requirements and improve their reading and writing skills. By night, I am Shannon E. Stephan (my maiden name) or @writtenbyshannon and author of the poetry collection, HER EXODUS.

I have always considered myself a writer, but I didn’t actively begin engaging in community or sharing my writing publicly until shortly after I gave birth to my first child. I was invited to work with a team of writers for a blog called Liberating Working Moms and assisted them in generating ideas, writing articles, branding, and creating memes. However, the founder became overwhelmed with the traffic and the project is now defunct. In the aftermath, I wrote pieces on mental health and autism for The Mighty, but I found that these opportunities were few and far between. After the global pandemic, I joined Instagram with the hope of connecting with other writers and building my own community. In the last 4 years, I’ve become a part of an incredible corner of the Internet with people across the world who share my love of poetry.

I began serving as a curator for two pages, Antipoetic Revolution (a platform dedicated to providing poetry prompts, featuring the work of new writers, and holding live poetry readings on a weekly basis) and First Line Poets, an invite-only poetry collaboration project founded by author Emma-Jane Barlow. I assisted her in editing, revising, and publishing the First Line Poets anthology.

Eventually, these experiences led me to connect with Ravven White, the founder of Curious Corvid Publishing, a small independent press based in Ohio. Because Ravven had experienced religious trauma herself, she expressed great interest in the prospect of my work-in-progress which eventually became my first published book, Her Exodus.

Currently, Her Exodus is my “product” and I am incredibly proud of her. I never intended for my first published work to be a dark poetry collection with a horror-style cover. I thought I would write a cute chapbook of poems about my kids or funny anecdotes about teaching public school. But this story begged to be told, and I know there are millions of people who can relate. What sets Her Exodus apart from other poetry collections is that it focuses on the centuries of abuse and manipulation caused by organized religion in a more personal and relatable way, and it seeks to find some semblance of hope and peace after breaking with religion.

Now that I have successfully completed the indie publishing experience as an author, I do hope to expand my services to include copy and line editing. I want any potential followers, readers, fans to know that they are not alone and their story matters, too.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I spent over a decade immersed in a controlling religious environment, and that caused me to actively deny my own desires and intuition. After I left and began determining my own sense of self, I had to regularly remind myself to check in with my own emotional and physical reactions to people, places, and situations.

As I was creating a timeline for the production of my first poetry collection, I felt compelled to hire an editor. Although I’m an English teacher, I felt that it was important to get another set of eyes to provide me with perspective on the content or grammar that I may not have been seeing. An acquaintance recommended a freelance editor, and I was able to view her specialties and pricing online. However, I did not love her work, I had not personally been able to read any books she had edited, and I was concerned about the abrupt and often seemingly unkind way she engaged with people online. I went back and forth in my head and did query other editors, but ultimately denied my own intuition because this particular editor’s prices were the most reasonable.

You can probably tell where this is going. Not only did the timeline change multiple times because my editor had other projects/extenuating circumstances, but when I finally received her feedback and suggested “edits,” I immediately realized I had made a mistake. Her comments were harsh and degrading. She made unprofessional and mocking statements in her notes, and when I expressed that I had hoped she would provide constructive criticism or ways to improve each poem, she became combative and used profanity. She received payment for her services, but I was left… lost.

I was crushed that I had felt that feeling–you know the one–when something is just “off,” and I had ignored it. I’ve learned now that I need to always follow my gut, listen to my intuition, and, for what it’s worth, I’ve also learned: you get what you pay for.

Thankfully, my publisher connected me with a lovely editor through the Curious Corvid Publishing house named Aimee. Aimee spent so much time combing through my poetry collection and really encouraged me as I rewrote poems that needed tweaking. She assisted me with organization and truly gave my story the respect it deserved.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the freedom to express myself authentically and to connect with others seeking to do the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.curiouscorvidpublishing.com/product-page/her-exodus
• Instagram: @writtenbyshannon