Shannon Ravenel has worked in publishing since graduating from Hollins College.  She edited 13 volumes of The Best American Short Stories plus the retrospective Best American Short Stories of the Eighties.  In 1982, she joined Louis Rubin to establish Algonquin Books, serving as Editorial Director and editing New Stories from the South.  Ravenel has been a juror and panelist for the Rea Award for the Short Story, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the DeWitt & Lila Wallace Literary Marketing Grants.  She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.