Shannon Reed, associate teaching professor for the fiction writing track at Pitt and the new director of undergraduate studies in the Writing program, released her second book, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out (HarperCollins) in February 2024. Reed writes about her personal reading philosophy and her experiences with a wide range of literature, while never failing to include humorous prose and digestible anecdotes for readers of all levels. In an interview with T5F Associate Editor Briana Bindus, Reed discussed her experiences with writing this book and her journey at Pitt.
Shannon Reed’s love for reading was ignited at just two years old, when her grandmother taught her how to read. From that point forward, reading became “a way for [Reed] to be in the world.” As a hearing-impaired individual, Reed remembers being “frustrated” when people didn’t accommodate or understand her capabilities; naturally, reading became her safe haven.
“Reading was never frustrating for me,” Reed said. “The information was on the page. I might not know a word, but I knew how to look words up, or to just sort of read past it. So [reading] became a big way for me to entertain myself.”
Reed’s passion for reading was nurtured throughout her childhood. Some of her fondest memories include reading with her family—which they still read together today.
“Reading was something everybody in my family did,” Reed said. “I have very specific memories of being in the family living room and each of us in a chair, or on a sofa, just reading—quietly reading together. Even today, when I go to visit my mom, almost every evening ends with each of us in a big comfy chair, just reading.”
Reed read all through her primary school days, and the passion never dulled: she eventually went forth to earn two degrees in theater and teach high school English and theater in New York City. She came to Pitt for the Writing program in 2012 and finished with an MFA in Writing (Fiction).
“When I was here, I thought the MFA program was just really lovely, in allowing me to figure out what kind of writer I wanted to be and find my voice. And the faculty was always really supportive,” Reed recalled.
Since then, Reed has been attached to Pitt: she joined Pitt’s faculty full time, eventually becoming an associate teaching professor; she currently teaches the full cycle of the fiction Writing track in the undergraduate program and recently became the program’s director of undergraduate studies, a position that opened when her co-director and friend, Jeff Oaks, passed away in late fall.
“I really worked my way up the ranks, and [Oaks] was just always rooting for me,” Reed reflected. “I’m really glad I [took this position] because I was able to learn a lot from him and, I think, give him some sense of security that the program was in good hands.” 
Reed feels that she is “still settling into and learning about [the position]” and is astounded at how much she’s discovering. For her, one of the most intriguing aspects of being director is talking to students and discussing their educational plans.
“I find it really fascinating to talk to students who are STEM majors or minors and decide to get a Creative Writing minor, and their logic for doing that,” Reed said. “And also, for someone who’s a literature major . . . we have so many different ways to structure your English majors or minors, which I think is amazing. It’s always interesting to hear what people are thinking about it.”
Overall, this is one of the things that Reed loves about Pitt: “There are so many different ways to build your own specific niche into things.”
This mash-up of interests rings true in Reed’s own life: Not only is she a teacher and administrator at Pitt, but she has been a frequent contributor to well-known publications, including The New Yorker, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Buzzfeed. One of her most recent accomplishments is the publication of her second book, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out.
Why We Read is a collection of Reed’s unique, hilarious prose explaining exactly what the title says: the many reasons why we read. She delves into her experiences with reading, both as a veteran English teacher and a conventional pleasure reader. With personal anecdotes and chapters that consist of listicles—including lists on “How I Choose A Book: A Thirteen-Step Guide”; lists on how to tell if you are a fictional character, including “Signs You May Be a Character in a Popular Children’s Book” (hint: the first sign is that you are a bear); lists of “calmed-down” book titles, such as “The Good-Enough Gatsby”; and more—Reed uses her unwavering comedic voice to draw the reader in.
“My natural writing voice, and the writing voice that I’ve developed, is very casual, friendly, and fairly easy to understand,” Reed said. “My natural [writing] voice is just the way I am in life, as well as on the page.”
One of the richest aspects of Reed’s anecdotes is when she talks about teaching and, more specifically, her students. Throughout the book, Reed explains how much she learns from her creative writing students and her teaching career.
In the chapter, “Because We Had to,” Reed explains how dreadful assigned reading was for her as a student; and yet, as a teacher, she assigns reading. Despite the agony of an assigned text, most of Reed's students enjoy the books: “All sorts of wonderful things happen when my students talk about the books we're reading together.” She explains how much can be gained from a book, even when one doesn’t have a particular interest in it. She even gives some recommendations for Why We Read readers as well (The Grapes of Wrath and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings). Yet she doesn’t think reading has to be dreadful and wants her students to find joy in books, which is why she assigns popular can’t-put-down novels like Gone Girl, too.
“I assign [Gone Girl] at the top of readings in contemporary fiction to get everyone super-excited about reading, and it always works,” Reed explained. “I’ve had so many students say to me, ‘I had forgotten that I actually like to read,’ and I just like to show them that you can read whatever you want. There isn’t anything, as long as it’s in a language that you understand, that you can’t read.”
Reed points out how, even for those of us who are “nonreaders,” we’re always reading. Whether it’s a text on a phone screen or a printed novel, we’re reading all the time. It just takes finding a particular genre you enjoy to discover a fun way to pass the time.
“I would just urge people to think of [reading] as a way to pass the time—really low stakes stuff,” Reed said.
For Reed, her writing topic of interest tends to be aspects of teaching, a theme that arises across many of her other works. Her first book, Why Did I Get a B? And Other Mysteries We’re Discussing in the Faculty Lounge (Atria, 2021), and her frequently reposted article “If People Talked to Other Professionals the Way They Talk to Teachers,” which was McSweeney’s most read article in 2018, are centered around the experience of being a teacher.
“I do spend a lot of time in the classroom,” Reed notes, “and I also think teaching is very badly portrayed in American culture. So, I wanted to portray what it means to be a teacher, what it is like to be a teacher, and also the act of teaching.”
Reed hadn’t always planned to be a teacher—in fact, she planned to go into theater. Her entire family was filled with teachers: her grandmother, her mother, distant relatives. She had practically written off being a teacher because she “wanted to create,” to be an artist. Yet, when she got a job at a preschool in the basement of her dad’s church, she loved it.
“It was very meaningful to me, and I realized that I had another side of me that loved to nurture and to teach and to care for other people,” Reed said.
Now, as she progresses into her multidimensional career of teacher, administrator, writer, and creator, she’s finding new ways to branch off. Next spring, Reed will pilot a humor writing class—which is her niche.
“We look at screenplays, we look at skits, we look at all kinds of writing and think about how humor is used in it, and the different kinds of humor,” Reed explained, “[all] so that you can think of humor as both a [medium] and a tool that you can use.”
Even further into the future, Reed plans on publishing a third book, which will be a novel.
Yet she’ll still be reading, whether it’s a “big meaty nonfiction book” or women’s fiction, because of all the different reasons she offers as chapter titles in Why We Read, such as: “To Learn About (and From) the Past,” “For Love,” “To Make Us Cry,” “For Comfort,” “Because It’s Fun,” “To Motivate Us,” and, especially, “Because We Are What We Read”.
—Briana Bindus
Briana Bindus, associate editor for The Fifth Floor, is a rising junior pursuing a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in English Literature and Communications. She believes in empowering all voices, which she aims to do through her passion for journalism.