Shawna Kenney's memoir, I Was a Teenage Dominatrix (Last Gasp), won a Firecracker Alternative Book award , and was nominated for Independent Publishing Magazine's "Ippy" in the Most Likely To Be Banned category. The UK version was printed by Transworld Publishing (Random House Group) in November 2002, an Italian edition is out now, while film rights to the book have been optioned. Kenney's book is also a required text in Seattle Central Community College's Coordinated Studies Fall program (CSP 125: "Hair, Sex and Symbolism").

Kenney has published hundreds of freelance nonfiction articles, features, essays and reviews in pop-culture publications. Her work has appeared in The National Writers Union Journal American Writer, Juxtapoz Magazine, Transworld Skateboarding, Alternative Press, the LA Weekly, While You Were Sleeping, Heckler, the Florida Review, Slap and Swindle Quarterly, among others. She penned the "punk LA" chapter of the Underground Guide to Los Angeles, appears in Etiquette for Outlaws (HarperCollins), and has essays in current anthologies, Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache (Alyson Books), and Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class (Seal Press). She also currently co-edits Herbivore Magazine.

Kenney's life in letters began in the DC area in the late 80s with her self-published music fanzine, No Scene ‘Zine, which she produced while booking weekly all-ages punk, metal and ska matinees. Several of her events were fundraisers for The Washington Literacy Council, where she served as both Fundraising Chairperson and an adult literacy volunteer tutor. She moved to the west coast in 1995 after graduating from the American University in Washington, DC with a B.A. in Film. The author has since performed and featured on panels at Cal-State Fullerton, Cal-State Long Beach, UCLA, Sarah Lawrence College, Goucher College, the LA Times Festival of Books, the West Hollywood Book Fair, various National Writers Union functions, the Hollywood Public Library, Los Angeles Ladyfest, NC Ladyfest, and the D.I.Y. Convention, among others. Her band photography has been published and exhibited in several art shows. Kenney has hosted numerous literary events, including the Unhappy Hour, Lydia Lunch’s popular monthly reading series at the Parlour Club in West Hollywood, earning several James Irvine Foundation Poets & Writers grants.

http://www.shawnakenney.com