Dr. Shannon Valenzuela

Dr. Shannon Valenzuela is an Affiliate Assistant Professor of Humanities and English at the University of Dallas, where she also received her bachelors degree before earning her doctorate at Notre Dame. A medievalist by training, she is also well-versed in the classical epics, lyric poetry, and drama. She has worked as an educator for almost two decades.

Dr. Valenzuela is also Content Director for UD's Catholic Faith and Culture Program and writer and director of The Quest, a limited television series produced by UD about discovering one’s purpose and living it with courage. She works primarily in science fiction and all her work involves questions of the human spirit: courage in the face of great darkness, curiosity and its consequences, and love as the thing that makes us who we are as human beings. Her novels are published under the pen name Shannon Blake.