A Message From Shannon:

“So what is it, exactly, that you do?” I’ve always struggled a bit to answer this question. Some would call me a “multi-hyphenate” and others would say I do too much. I think of myself primarily as a writer, a storyteller, but one who also does a lot of public facing work. Maybe I’m a public intellectual? But I’m also a hands on facilitator and educator.

What ties all of this together?

I believe in the power of stories. It was in reading other people’s stories that I was able to name myself: first as gay then as transgender. I became the first openly transgender man ordained to the Old Catholic priesthood. I have seen firsthand how stories can open people up (to themselves and to others), increase their empathy, and lead them into new ways of relating.

My storytelling happens in books through my published work, on stages through theatre, on screens in my writing for film/television, from pulpits as I preach, from behind music stands as I teach and facilitate workshops, and in my newsletter and here on this website.

I write about creativity, masculinity, theology, transgender issues, prison work, and rural living. I’m passionate about community, about understanding, and about solidarity with the most marginalized.

If you want to know more about what I’ve done, my official bio is below, and you can find out more throughout the website.

I’m glad you’re here. Your story matters.

Official Bio:

Shannon TL Kearns is a transgender man who believes in the transformative power of story. As an ordained priest, a playwright, a theologian, and a writer all of his work revolves around making meaning through story.

Shannon’s first book In the Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey With Scripture is available now from Eerdman’s Books. He has three books forthcoming: No One Taught Me How To Be A Man: What A Trans Man’s Experience Reveals About Masculinity (Broadleaf), Come and See: An Invitation To A Radical Encounter With Jesus A Youth Devotional (Hodder Faith), Reading the Bible Through Queer Eyes (HarperOne, co-written with Brian G. Murphy). 

Shannon is a recipient of the Louisville Pastoral Study Grant for 2025/2026, the Humanitas New Voices Fellowship for 2022, a Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellowship in 20/21 and he was a Lambda Literary Fellow for 2019 in playwriting and in 2022 for screenwriting. He was a Finnovation Fellow for 2019/2020. He is a sought after speaker on transgender issues and religion as well as a skilled facilitator of a variety of workshops. 

Shannon co-founded QueerTheology.com with Brian G. Murphy. Since its start in 2013, this work has reached more than two million people all over the world through videos, articles, and online courses and community. Their Queer Theology podcast is the longest running LGBTQ+ Christian podcast. 

Selected recognition: Winner of the ScreenCraft Pitch competition, finalist for Bull City Film Festival for his pilot Transformed. Winner of the New Hope Film Festival for best premium/tv script. He’s been a playwright in residence at the Inge House, participated in the Seven Devils’ Playwright Conference and the Great Plains Theatre Conference. He was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill and a finalist for the Blue Ink playwriting award.

Shannon’s plays include Laughing, Flexing, Dying, The Stories We Tell At The End Of The World, Body+Blood, in a stand of dying trees, Line of Sight, Twisted Deaths, The Resistance of My Skin, and Who Has Eyes To See.