Poet, writer, and activist, Angel V. Shannon has been called a "dynamic speaker and powerful new voice in literature." Born in Brooklyn, New York, she balances a professional career in medicine with motherhood, writing, and speaking out for literacy, human rights, and environmental justice. Whether speaking to a group of nurses about the importance of recognizing health disparities across ethnic lines or to communities about the simplicity and value of recycling and lead testing or reading books to youngsters to promote literacy, Ms. Shannon's vision of creative writing has always been one that utilizes the written word as a tool for developing social, political, and cultural consciousness.

The publication of her first book, ...And Then There Were Butterflies (Doppio Books, 2004) has earned her frequent invitations to speak both on radio and television. Ms. Shannon has been a returning guest on Philadelphia's well known WURD 900 AM and Baltimore's 88.9 WEAA-FM. Her first television appearance, Poetry In Black, which aired in December 2004 on Public Access Channel 14 (PAC-14, Salisbury MD) was well received on Maryland's Eastern Shore and in March 2005 she was a guest on The Writer's Tale, a literary arts production of the University of Maryland, College Park (UM-TV), due for national airing in April 2005 on the Research Channel and Dish-TV.

Ms. Shannon's poems and essays have been published in a wide variety of journals and online zines. She is a member of the International Women Writers Guild and a supporter of MADRE, an international non-profit organization that advocates for the rights of women and children. Her current projects include a second volume of poetry and her first novel. She resides in Maryland with her husband, two children, and yellow lab retriever.