About                  

Journalist, editor and author  Shawn Hartley Hancock began writing for the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, MA, while an undergraduate at Mount Holyoke College, where she was also an editor of Choragos, the student newspaper.  Shawn and her friend Beth Sweeney taught a magazine-production class during their senior year that resulted in the 48-page general-interest magazine Bluestocking, the name borrowed from early women suffragettes.   

After graduating from Mount Holyoke (B.A., Art History) and completing the Stanford University Publishing Course, Shawn became an editorial assistant in the Beauty Department of  Seventeen magazine, where she was responsible for generating the popular “Dear Beauty Editor” column.  At Esquire,she worked with such literary lions as Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, Tom Wolfe, Richard Ford and Marilyn French on the magazine’s two Fiftieth Anniversary issues, one of which, “50 Who Made a Difference,” won a National Magazine Award. 

As features editor of  Successful Meetings, a magazine for the corporate travel and convention industry, Shawn developed, assigned and edited articles on a broad range of subjects, and traveled worldwide to cover new hotels, resorts and other attractions.  She is the author and co-author of several travel books, including Florida For Free, the Crown Guide to California, and several editions of the  Fodor’s guides, as well as gift books on dogs in history and the beloved children’s author and illustrator, Beatrix Potter.  

Shawn’s background includes extensive experience in marketing and public relations on behalf of the Central Park Conservancy / NYC Parks Department, Mount Sinai Hospital, the Spencertown Academy Arts Center, and other leading nonprofit organizations, including the New York Junior League, where she served as Communications Manager.

From her home in the Berkshires, Shawn writes about home design and gardens, travel, health and other topics for leading magazines and newspapers.  She is a regular contributor to Berkshire Living  magazine.