News 2008

Shawna's new book, Imposters (Mark Batty Publishers) is finally available Feb 15, 2008!
Shawna wins "Best Stringer" award at the Star News for her essay/article, Decoration Day!
Shawna's story of seeing TSOL at the 9:30 in Washington, DC is included in new anthology, My First Time: A Collection of First Punk Show Stories (AK Press, July 2007), edited by Chris Duncan.
Shawna's profiles of punk anti-icon Ian MacKaye and author Michelle Tea featured in Swindle's first annual Icons Issue.
Pieces of Shawna's Joe Strummer interview included in beautiful book, Let Fury Have the Hour: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer by Antonino D'Ambrosio
Shawna's short story, 'Serenity,' included in the Pale House Collective anthology, by new Los Angeles publishing company, Pale House Press. This is her first fictional story in print! Release party in December in LA, and inaugural reading at Skylight Books in February, 2006.

Shawna covers the Return of Roller Derby, as well as pro jump ropers, Double Dutchess in Swindle Magazine, Issue 3.

Shawna's essay The Wild Dogs of Nicaragua is published in the Special Edition Florida Review Chapbook in conjunction with the National Women's Studies Association Conference 2005.

Shawna's essay Alpha Centauri wins 2nd Runner Up (3rd place, like the Miss America Pageant) in the Rose Post Creative Non-Fiction Competition sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network.

I Was a Teenage Dominatrix - Italian edition, out now! (Baldini Castaldi Editore)
Meraviglioso!

Is it a magazine? Is it a book? It's Issue Number 1 of Swindle Quarterly, and it's finally here! Read Shawna's adventures in assisting professional sword-swallower/knife-thrower, Carnivale's David Markham...plus photos by Carlos Batts, cover art by Shepard Fairey, a good story on pro-skater/artist Natas Kaupas, a piece on the history of hip-hop, and lots of other cool stuff! Available at B&N, Virgin Megastores and other fine shops.

Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class (Seal Press, 2004)

Contributors include: Dorothy Allison, Diane Di Prima, Terri Griffith, Daisy Hernandez, Frances Varian, Eileen Myles, Shawna Kenney, Siobhan Brooks, Terry Ryan, and more.

check out the nice new review from Bust magazine!:

Bust Summer '04 issue (Jenna Malone on cover)
Rather than mythologizing the poor, the women in this groundbreaking anthology tell it like it is, with all the blood, guts, and glory that growing up working class has forged upon them. Some authors focus on their childhood experiences, like Bee Lavender in her history of fighting with her family, while others share current snapshots, like Ricky Lee in her story of life as a butch-lesbian construction worker. Other authors, like Diane di Prima, Dorothy Allison, and Eileen Myles, have since gone on to literary fame, and their pieces serve as poignant reminders that things don't change overnight once one has "made it." Ably mixing these diverse experiences, editor Michelle Tea explains in her introduction that she "likes to imagine that our lives are dazzling athletic feats, our survival graceful and artistic." Throughout the collection, it becomes clear that writing is the key to this survival for many women. As Shawna Kenney concludes in "Something From Nothing," her powerful memories are the thing that sustains her. "I remember it all, enough to write it down," Kenney writes, "so I know I do have something."

-Rachel Kramer Bussel

also check out Shawna's story in new anthology:

Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache: Adventures in the First Person (Alyson Books, 2004), edited by Clint Catalyst (Cottonmouth Kisses) and Michelle Tea (Valencia, The Chelsea Whistle)

Contributors include: JT LeRoy (The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, Sarah), Dennis Cooper (My Loose Thread, Period, Guide, Try, Frisk, Closer ), Eileen Myles (Cool For You, Chelsea Girls, The New Fuck You), Kevin Killian (I Cry Like a Baby, Little Men, Shy ), Pleasant Gehman (Escape From Houdini Mountain, Princess of Hollywood, The Underground Guide to Los Angeles) , Alvin Orloff (I Married an Earthling ), Shawna Kenney (I Was a Teenage Dominatrix ), Thea Hillman (Depending on the Light ), Jayson Elliott (Clamor Magazine), Charles Anders (The Lazy Crossdresser ), Inga Muscio (Cunt: A Declaration of Independence)


I Was a Teenage Dominatrix - UK edition (Transworld Publishing, Nov. 2002)

I Was a Teenage Dominatrix (Last Gasp, 2002). 2nd U.S. edition available at your favorite local bookstore, amazon.com, or directly through Last Gasp.

I Was a Teenage Dominatrix (Retro-Systems, 1999). This is the first American edition. It is out-of-print. Old copies may be found at Powell's Books.

The Underground Guide to Los Angeles
edited by Pleasant Gehman
(punk chapter by Shawna Kenney)

I Was a Teenage Dominatrix Portuguese printing pending on Ulmeiro Press