Shannon Andres grew up in Sonoma County, the only child of a single mother. After finishing her undergrad in English at Pacific Union College in Napa Valley, she moved to the Silicon Valley, where she became a wife, mother, and teacher. She is currently a MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at the University of San Francisco, as well as a middle school English Language Arts teacher and mother to two teens of her own. She divides her time between a family home in Sunnyvale and a tiny, sunny studio on the border of Oakland.