Shannon Sanders is the author of Company (Graywolf Press, 2023). She was selected as a 2020 winner of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize for Emerging Writers for her short story "The Good, Good Men," which appeared in Puerto del Sol's Black Voices series and was later reprinted in Best Debut Short Stories 2020. Her short fiction has appeared in The Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, One Story, TriQuarterly, Joyland, Electric Literature, SLICE, and Strange Horizons. She lives near Washington, DC.
Shannon featured in Publishers Weekly: "Writers to Watch: 10 Promising Fiction Debuts, Fall 2023"
Praise for THE GREAT WHEREVER
One of Publishers Weekly 10 Most Anticipated Literary Fiction titles for Spring/Summer 2026
“Sanders is a sublime writer with unparalleled talent. I could read her writing all day, every day.”
―Debutiful, The Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2026
“The Great Wherever is an epic and deeply human story of family and fortune that reaches across the divide between the living and the dead with grace, humor, and emotional conviction. Shannon Sanders’ love for her characters is matched only by her ability to make us care about them as much as she does. I’m in awe of what she accomplishes in this astoundingly good debut novel.”
―Patrick Ryan, New York Times bestselling author of Buckeye
“The Great Wherever is fertile ground for Shannon Sanders’ vast gifts as a writer. Dead or alive, righteous or wrong, every one of her Lambs is a singular, beautiful mess, together growing the rich family history she seeds, from page 1, with great care, heart, and unyielding humor. By novel’s end, I felt as dazzled as one of the ancestors at the edge of the pond, in awe of all its beauty and magic.”
―Dawnie Walton, author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
“In The Great Wherever, Sanders masterfully bridges generations and yet is still able to home in on her characters' intricate inner lives. By the end, they all feel like family, and reading their story feels like coming home. Gripping, moving, witty, and wise, this is historical fiction at its finest.”
―Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of On the Rooftop, a Reese’s Book Club Pick
“The Great Wherever is an arch yet heartwarming tale of family, the ghosts that haunt them, and the place we call home. Between the story's heartbreaks, we get leaps of humor that made me love every member of the Lamb family, the ones dead and the ones alive. It is rare to root for every character and yet I found myself doing so. What a gift of a book.”
―Vanessa Chan, author of international bestseller, The Storm We Made
Praise for COMPANY
Winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction
A Publishers Weekly "Best Fiction Book of 2023"
An October 2023 Indie Next Pick
Shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
Debutiful's “Most Anticipated Debuts of 2023”
Electric Literature's “Must-Read Debut Short Story Collections of 2023”
Chicago Review of Books’ “Must-Read Books of October 2023”
"One of the great pleasures ofCompany— and there are many — is how some stories double back to retell an event or re-establish a family member from a different vantage point, deepening our understanding of, and investment in, the Collinses. . .Companyis a deftly woven tapestry that scrupulously depicts familial ties and estrangement, richly told with a nuance that allows each character dignity and grace."—Jonathan Escoffery, The New York Times Book Review
"Company shows the frayed edges of friendship and family, and Sanders extracts comedy from the formidable situations that erupt in people’s lives — divorce, financial struggle, aging, death and childlessness. . . This book is for anyone bludgeoned by gnawing remarks from family members or friends. We all find ourselves in bad company on occasion, but the stakes are higher when those experiences happen with those we consider kin."—Edna Bonhomme, The Washington Post
“Sanders excels in this masterly debut collection about a Black extended family and their triumphs, problems, and secrets. . . . She also exhibits great care and love for them, describing their slights, heartaches, and misbehavior with exquisite emotional acuity. This is a winner.”—Publishers Weekly (starred)
"Sanders’ remarkable, aptly titled short-story collection centers around a compelling Black family and the varied company it keeps...The characters throughout are expertly rendered and deeply relatable...Sanders’ stories are unforgettable, making this a strong and promising debut."—Booklist (starred)
“Subtly crafted. . . . The difficult aspects of negotiating family relationships are gently examined but, more interestingly, respected in their recounting. The complicated circuitry behind family alliances and breakdowns is artfully revealed.”―Kirkus Reviews
“Sanders’ craft is precise, her writing absolutely gorgeous, but it’s this care and love for the flawed humans she’s created that captures our hearts as we read. . . . It’s not hyperbole to say that I laughed, cried, and was completely devastated by the end of this collection. I’d fallen so in love with this world, and with Sanders’ writing, that it was very hard to put Company down.”―Hannah Grieco, Washington City Paper
“Company is a rich and distinct collection that announces Shannon Sanders as an exciting new voice in contemporary literature.”―Rachel León, Bomb
“[A] rare feat. . . . Sanders weaves the narrative fabric of her stories with the utmost care, creating an intricate and lively look into the many beautiful moments in the lives of one Black family.”―Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books’ “Must-Read Books of October 2023”
“Sanders writes with such courage and complexity. She has a masterful grasp of characters, pacing, and plotting. Company is a delectable debut.”―Debutiful's “Most Anticipated Debuts of 2023”
“Company introduces an unforgettable cast of characters who remind us that family can be both wound and salve. Sanders gorgeously captures both the exuberance and exhaustion of contemporary Black life and offers sharp and original insight into the intimate politics of race and class and the impossible rules we’ve inherited to navigate them. This is a brilliant and immaculate debut.”—Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections
“Shannon Sanders’s stories simply blew me away. The Collins family and the many folks in their orbit are endlessly fascinating, frustrating, and fun to meet on the page. Company is a riotous, dazzling debut that is as profound as it is entertaining.”—Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
“Company is a story collection that eats like a novel. Each story feels like a completely different vision of the same majestically sprawling family, as these neurotic high achievers struggle to balance the duties of kinship, social appearances, and honesty to their true selves. Reading Shannon Sanders makes me want to visit home.”—Tony Tulathimutte, author of Private Citizens
“If love is a many-splendored thing, family love is a little more complex: sometimes spluttery, sometimes splintering, often served up with a side of spleen. The extended clan Shannon Sanders conjures in Company is fully alive—and very funny!—recognizable but wholly new, and to read their stories is to get the gift you don’t always get from your own family: the feeling of being seen.”—Will Allison, author of Long Drive Home
“Assured and incisive, this collection hums with the dark comedy of striving and speaks the inconvenient necessity of affiliation as it unravels the complications of belonging. In Sanders’s hands, the company we keep is always going somewhere and yet never far away, shrewd, petty, and full of longing. This clear-eyed debut brims human.”—Tracy O’Neill, author of Quotients