Shannon TL Kearns is a transgender man who's playwriting is obsessed with big questions told through small stories. He is committed to work by and for marginalized communities, using writing to create a new future for all of us. Shannon was the playwright in residence at the William Inge House in summer of 2021. He was a recipient of the Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellowship in 20/21 and a Lambda Literary Fellow in playwrighting for 2019 and in screenwriting for 2022. Shannon was selected for Great Plains Theatre Conference and Seven Devils Playwrights’ Conference. Shannon has had residencies with the HBMG Foundations’ Winter Playwright Retreat, Everwood Artists Retreat, and the Elsewhere Artists Retreat. He and his plays have been finalists or semi-finalists with American Blues Theatre Blue Ink Playwriting award, Princess Grace Award, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, O’Neill Playwrights Festival, Equity Library Theatre of Chicago, TransLab, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and American Stages New Play Festival. He was the founder and Artistic Director of Uprising Theatre Company in Minneapolis, MN. Shannon’s plays include Body+Blood, in a stand of dying trees, Line of Sight,Twisted Deaths, The Resistance of My Skin, and Who Has Eyes To See. His television pilots include: Family Unit, Transformed and Freedom, Kansas.