When you reach that beautiful moment in life—when you’ve completely opened your heart—that’s when you give birth to poetry. —Shawn Aveningo Sanders
Who Is the Red Shoe Poet?
Shawn Aveningo Sanders grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. A true “show me” girl at heart, she loves writing and reading poems that show instead of tell stories to stir emotion and move the needle forward on the empathy meter in hopes of creating a more compassionate world.
Shawn graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland while living in Stuttgart, Germany and has been lucky enough to live in a variety of states including Alabama, Virginia, Georgia, Indiana, and California. A proud mom of three and Nana to one adorable little girl, she now shares the creative life with her husband Robert, in Oregon, where together they have published over 160 poetry books through their press, The Poetry Box®
Shawn’s poetry has appeared in print worldwide in Australia, Croatia, England, France, the Netherlands, South Africa and the United States,. Her poems have been published in literary journals including ONE ART, CALYX, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Willawaw, Verseweavers, Sheila-Na-Gig, Quartet; Timberline Review, Naugatuck River Review, About Place Journal, Tule Review, Snapdragon, Northampton Poetry Review, Amsterdam Quarterly, and others. She was also the editor of The Poeming Pigeon (2014-2024).
Shawn’s previous works include What She Was Wearing, a chapbook that reveals her #metoo secret after thirty years. Her newest collection, Pockets, was a finalist in the 2024 Concrete Wolf Chapbook Contest and is forthcoming from MoonPath Press in September, 2025.
Her poems have garnered multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, as well as won or placed in contests sponsored by the Oregon Poetry Association, Lincoln Writers, Benicia Literary Arts, and Sacramento News & Review. She also won first prize in the inaugural El Dorado Country Poetry Slam, garnering her a prize of $107—Who says poetry doesn’t pay?!
Book Launch Video
What She Was Wearing
Annie Bloom’s bookstore in Portland, Oregon.