Shawn Aveningo Sanders Biography

Shawn Aveningo Sanders is a globally published, award-winning poet who can’t stand the taste of coconut, eats pistachios daily and loves shoes … especially red ones! (redshoepoet.com) Shawn’s work has appeared in over 100 literary journals and anthologies. She’s a Pushcart nominee (2015) , Best of the Net nominee (2017) , co-founder of The Poetry Box®, managing editor for The Poeming Pigeon®, and was named Best Female Poet-Performer in Sacramento News & Review Reader Poll (2009) .

Shawn grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri and earned her bachelors degree in Computer Science and Marketing, graduating Summa cum Laude from the University of Maryland while living overseas in Stuttgart, Germany. She's also lived in Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Indiana, California and Oregon. Shawn is a proud mother of three and shares the creative life with her husband in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, where she writes poetry, publishes books, hosts readings and designs websites for local businesses and authors.

She believes poetry, especially when read aloud, is the perfect literary art form for today’s fast-paced world due to its power to stir emotion in less than two minutes.