Cross-Country Traveler, Passionate Writer

 In Blog

Shannon Grossman, a new Westfield State University intern at Beetle Press, doesn’t plan on holding back in the slightest in her creative thinking this semester. She plans to give a piece of herself to our readers and clients every time her fingertips clack across the keyboard.

Shannon has been writing since she was in fifth grade, but she didn’t realize that writing creatively is what she was meant to do with her life until she was in high school. She is currently working on a fantasy novel, but is planning on editing some short stories and an ongoing novella project in hopes of publication. “After college,” she says, “I plan on working for a publishing company, hopefully in the editorial side of things.”

While at Beetle Press, Shannon will help Janice research and refine several of Janice’s own manuscripts—one a fictional love story and the other a memoir about visiting the South Pacific this winter. Shannon will likewise have her hand in several client book projects and in writing for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, under Janice’s guidance. Shannon will also learn how to write press releases and blogs.

“I wanted to strengthen my skills in both communication and writing,” Shannon says, noting why she chose Beetle Press for her internship. “I also wanted to get a ‘real-world’ experience, to acquire practice and familiarity with such things as interviewing, blogging, etc., and to grow as an individual.”

Shannon was born in Natick, Massachusetts, in November 1993. She attended Harwich High School and lives in Harwich when she is not at Westfield State, where she is a senior English major with both a writing concentration and a psychology minor.

The captain of the cross-country team at Westfield State, Shannon also runs track and was part of the league championship team that took the state title for the twelfth year in a row last year. “I personally had one of my best seasons running-wise,” Shannon says. “Continuing with running (from high school) and trying out for the Westfield State team was one of the best decisions I made. The friends I made through it are like a family to me, and they helped me grow as a person.”

Shannon is also a part of Sigma Tau Delta, Westfield State’s English Honors Society and is presenting her memoir, Wildest Dreams, at its conference in March. The book focuses on Shannon’s studies abroad—and a romance that ensued—in Denmark in the spring of 2015.

In her freshman year, Shannon journeyed with a team from Westfield State to Nicaragua in a community-service class. Sophomore year, she visited Nepal with a university group and trekked through the Himalayas for two weeks. Just this January, Shannon travelled with her best friend from home to Malaysia, backpacking for three-weeks throughout the country, just because.

“Traveling teaches you so much about yourself and others, and that’s why I’ll always want to travel,” Shannon says, noting that others should make efforts to see the larger world.

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