Dr. Sandra G. Shannon is Professor Emerita of African American Literature in the Department of English at Howard University. Widely acknowledged as the leading authority on playwright August Wilson, she is Founder and current President of the August Wilson Society and the author of two book-length studies: The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson and August Wilson’s Fences: A Reference Guide.  She has written numerous essays and chapters on Wilson and served as the sole Editor of Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1980s and August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle. She co-edited August Wilson and Black Aesthetics and the MLA Approaches to Teaching the Plays of August Wilson.

Dr. Shannon currently serves as Scholar-in-Residence at Pittsburgh's August Wilson African American Cultural Center to support their first-of-its-kind interactive exhibit titled, August Wilson: The Writer's Landscape. In 2018 she was inducted as a Fellow of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre and is currently Dean Elect of this organization. Also in 2018, she was awarded the Winona Lee Fletcher Award for Excellence by the Black Theatre Network (BTN). She is former President of BTN and former Editor of the College Language Association Journal, and Founding board member of BTN’s Black Theatre Review (formerly known as Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre, and Performance).

Recommended Readings: 

Books:

• The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson (Howard University Press 1995).
• August Wilson’s Fences: A Reference Guide. (Connecticut: Greenwood, 2003).

Journal Articles:

• "A Transplant That Did Not Take: August Wilson's Views on the Great Migration."  African American Review 31 (Winter 1997): 659-666.
• "The Long Wait: August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Black American Literature Forum 25 (Spring 1991): 151-162.
• "Framing African American Cultural Identity: The Bookend Plays in August Wilson's 10-Play Cycle." College Literature Special Issue on August Wilson 36.2 (Spring 2009): 26-39.