Degrees: Ph.D., University of Cincinnati; B.A., Xavier University
Biography: Dr. Shannon is an assistant professor in the Department of English and Modern Languages. He earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Cincinnati and a B.A. in English and Communication Arts from Xavier University.
A native of Atlanta, Dr. Shannon grew up in Austin, Texas, but has lived in Cincinnati since the mid-1980s. He currently is working to expand his doctoral dissertation entitled, "The Deep Old Desk: the Diary of Virginia Wolf," into a book.
In his free time, Professor Shannon often travels to England, collects books (9,000 and counting), loves to watch and discuss films, enjoys music, and is currently learning piano and Italian. He wishes he had the patience to garden.
Read what Drew Shannon has to say:
As a child, I was constantly sick with asthma. There was a time when I actively cursed this illness, but it turned me into a reader—no playing outside meant lots of time indoors, with only books and my imagination for company. There are days when I get up and feel that I’m the luckiest man I know, because I get paid to talk about great books all day. A great book can wake you up out of your fog, can change the way you see the world and yourself, can fire all of the cylinders in your brain, can be proof against loneliness, can companion you through the various passages in your life. It is this capacity of books—the capacity for books to incite change of all sorts—that I hope I communicate to my students.
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| Writing on the train from London to Sussex to visit Virginia Woolf’s house. |
5 books that have touched my life
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The Hours by Michael Cunningham, for sparking my obsession with Virginia Woolf.
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To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, for its structural perfection, and for its gorgeous prose.
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84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, for being probably the best book about thelove of books ever written.
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Children of Violence by Doris Lessing, a staggering five-volume series, for being about race, gender, class, and humanity’s possible fate.
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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, a World War II novel narrated by Death, for containing some of the most beautiful, startling, and original language I’ve ever read.