English and Media Studies Teacher
B.A. Trinity College
M.BA. University of Hartford
M.F.A. Vermont College of Fine Arts
Phone:
Email: slee@putneyschool.org
Departments:
English Department
Why Putney:
“The answer I wish I’d given during my interview is very simple: This is the education I wish I had during my high school years. I came close to it, but what I appreciate most is that the education here at The Putney School expands beyond the classroom encouraging an ongoing learning among both faculty and students. Additionally, I’ve known about The Putney School for all of the years that I have lived in Southern Vermont and I’ve had nothing but deep admiration for the model and level of education here!”
Shanta Lee is a writer, photographer, journalist whose work has been featured in The Massachusetts Review, PRISM, ITERANT Literary Magazine, Palette Poetry, BLAVITY, DAME Magazine, The Crisis Magazine, Rebelle Society, and is one of the writers for the Ms. Magazine Blog. Shanta Lee’s photojournalism and art criticisms have been featured on Vermont Public Radio (VPR.org) and her investigative reporting has been in The Commons weekly newspaper covering Windham County, VT.
Shanta Lee is the 2020 recipient of the Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts and 2020 and named as Diode Editions full-length book contest winner for her June 2021 debut poetry compilation, GHETTOCLAUSTROPHOBIA: Dreamin of Mama While Trying to Speak Woman in Woke Tongues which has received an honorable mention for the Sheila Margaret Motton prize and has been reviewed by the Poetry Foundation (written by Ryo Yamaguchi) and Seven Days (written by Skye Jackson). Her contributing work on an investigative journalism piece for The Commons received several New England Newspaper & Press Association (NENPA) awards for her journalism work.
Shanta Lee gives lectures on the life of Lucy Terry Prince (c. 1730-1821) — considered the first known African-American poet in English literature — as a member of the Vermont and New Hampshire Humanities Council Speakers Bureaus. She is the 2020 gubernatorial appointee to the Vermont Humanities Council’s board of directors and has a solo photography show, Dark Goddess, being featured in the Manchester, VT gallery, Southern Vermont Arts Center in August – September 2021.
Shanta Lee has an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction and Poetry at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has an MBA from the University of Hartford and an undergraduate degree in Women, Gender and Sexuality from Trinity College. To see more of Shanta Lee’s work, visit Shantalee.com.
More about why I create/artist statement:
“I love extending an invitation into my world and passions through my photography, poetry, and prose. Across my broad range of skills, I most appreciate surfacing the unseen.
What is someone’s story under the surface of their face and presentation? What is forgotten to human memory that should be reclaimed? Or, most simply, how can I share the sense or soul of a place with someone who may not ever travel there?
It comes down to nurturing my hunger for curiosity while encouraging others to dive down their own rabbit holes of curiosity.”