BREAKING IN
Shannon Reed
Why Did I Get a B?
(Memoir, June, Atria)
“A hilarious, inspirational, and wise collection of personal essays and humor from a longtime educator, which explores the joys, challenges, and absurdities of being a teacher.”
Pittsburgh. After graduating from college, I taught preschool, high school, and I’m now a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh. Teaching gave me a great deal of material to write about! I’ve contributed humor to and and published essays in and . I’d had an agent for a couple of years and put together a proposal for a book of teacher humor, but she gave up on it and I parted ways. Soon after, my piece “If People Talked to Other Professionals the Way They Talked to Teachers,” ended up being the most-read article on in 2018, which showed me there was an audience for teacher humor. We sold the book in March 2019, and my editor asked if I could have the first draft done by fall. I said I could, and I did! I spent much of last summer writing every day. It wasn’t easy, because 90 percent of the book wasn’t already written. Shortly after my piece was the most popular article on , I tweeted that I was looking for an agent because I had a book to sell. Another writer saw and told her agent, Ryan Harbage. He sent me the nicest email shortly thereafter. Within a few weeks, I signed with him. A lot of it was luck—it’s not like I could control how many people read my work at . You can prepare to take advantage of luck when it comes your way. I had been writing humor and essays about teaching for several years, so when the chance came to put together a book on that theme, I had a lot of ideas of what I could write. Being professional whenever I can has helped. I pride myself on meeting deadlines, being open to edits, and responding to emails promptly and cordially. I am lucky to have a readership centered in fans of and “Shouts and Murmurs.” I’m always trying to build on that by publishing in places that are new to my work and maintaining a social media presence. Readers can’t tell how easy or difficult a piece was for you. Sometimes the words flow wonderfully, but the writing isn’t great. Sometimes you have to drag every word out, but the writing reads fantastically. Just put in the work. I’m working on the proposal for my second book of nonfiction, about literature I have loved (and love to teach). I’m writing a TV pilot about a high school similar to one where I taught. And I’m working on a novel about a funny, feminist spy.
