Hi, I’m Shannan (she/her/hers). I’m the daughter of a Sicilian immigrant who married a U.S. Navy brat. With ocean-crossing in our DNA, my family moved around a lot, but I’m mostly from Atlanta, Georgia and Columbus, Ohio. I’ve had I don’t-know-how-many jobs, but I mainly think of myself as a writer and teacher. My mother told me girls couldn’t be mafia dons, so I earned a PhD in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies instead. These days, I work to expand access to quality computer science education and write SFF stories. Gender is my favorite Play-Doh.
In 2022, I discovered I was Autistic and have ADHD, and I’ll be incorporating those aspects of my identity into my work in different ways going forward.
Human sexuality is one of my special interests, so a lot of people get very intrusive asking about my sexual orientation. Let’s get this out of the way: I don’t fit in any of the boxes, and the most accurate reply is still “fucking with you,” (highlight the text with your cursor to read it). However, I’m working with kids now, and I can’t swear as much. So, from now on I’m just saying I’m a queer woman.
I currently live in Ohio with an ever-expanding menagerie of furry monsters. When I’m not working or writing or podcasting, you can find me learning and making new things or road tripping for whiskey distilleries.
Dr. Shannan Palma (she/ her/ hers) is an award-winning expert in how and why people become invested in stories, symbols, and ideas that are not in their own best interests. Recently, she’s come to realize that the concept of mythos at the core of her work correlates to general-to-specific neural processing.
An alum of The OpEd Project, Palma also cohosts Once Upon a Patriarchy, an anti-oppression podcast exploring the long-term impact of Disney’s animated films on adults’ conceptions of gender, race, sexuality, and belonging. In addition, she writes speculative fiction.
Winner of the 2012 Kore Award for Best Dissertation on Women and Mythology, Palma earned her PhD in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a PhD Certificate in Film and Media Studies from Emory University. Her continued priority is meaningful, intellectually-engaging work that allows her to live her values holistically and to advocate for herself and others who are Autistic and/or have ADHD.
She is cofounder and co-Executive Director of the Autistic Self-Reliance Support Network.
Contact her here.
Books are my oldest and dearest friends. I return to some of them over and over to calm my overactive nervous system. There’s not really a unifying factor among all these books other than that I loved them.