Shannon Cowell is an archaeologist and writer living in Arizona.  Her writing weaves together the pasts, presents, and futures of contested western US landscapes.

Shannon completed her master’s degree in archaeology at New Mexico State University, specializing in the study of ceramics to explore gender, culture contact, colonialism, ethnicity, and identity. Her article “Beloved Things: Interpreting Curated Pottery in Diasporic Contexts” was recently published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology.

Shannon’s essay “Something About A Pipeline,” was a finalist in the 2015 Payton James Freeman Essay Prize contest judged by Cheryl Strayed and appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of Slice.  “Human” was published in the Fall 2019 issue of Spiral Orb as part of a literary inventory of species found in the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in southern New Mexico. 

She is currently working on a sci-fi novel.