Shannon Kelly Donahue

@shannonkellydonahue

Writer ~ Editor ~ Advocate Wildlife, Banshees, Climate, Language, Grief, Music, Gaeilge Ciarraí Abú! Words in Catamaran, Forum, Writers Rebel 2025 Evangeline Atwood Fellow at Storyknife Honored to live in Alaska on Jilkáat Aani shannonkellydonahue.com

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Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· 29d

Yesterday I took a boat to three museums. There were more museums but I only had so much steam. Oslo is so charming.

A small yellow ferry boat at a pier next to a bigger white boat. A sign on the pier says something in Norwegian that probably means Boat to the Museums. Sunny Day with clear blue skies and calm water.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· 29d

Today I fly to Svalbard to board the tall ship Rembrandt Van Rijn on an expedition of artists, writers, conservationists & scientists—the realization of a longtime dream I thought was out of reach, until it wasn't. I'll be on this ship. I have no words for the gratitude I am feeling right now. 🐻‍❄️💗🥹

The schooner Rembrandt van Rijn in full sail in flat calm arctic waters with snowcapped mountains and a blue sky in the background.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· 29d

Really fun to have a balcony view for the Norwegian football team’s homecoming to Oslo!

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jul 12

A cartoon drawing a a femme-presenting person holding a cell phone that’s on fire and saying “Help!”

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jul 12

Skål from Oslo!

A hand holding up a glass of whiskey on a balcony in Oslo looking out at the Norwegian Parliament Building, a cobblestone street, and the iconic Freia chocolate factory sign on a summer night.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jul 10

First of many legs en route to a tall ship expedition off Svalbard. Left Haines early this morning, flew up to Skagway to deliver the mail and a cat and pick up a Skagwegian, and now in Juneau to catch the jet to Seattle.✈️⛵️🐻‍❄️

Two small planes on an air strip in Alaska with snow capped mountains in the background under a heavy grey sky. A yellow box truck is loading mail from the plane.

Mountains and a fjord through the eh die of a small plane. Low cloud tendrils obscure the land and waterscape.

Port Chilkoot and the Haines townsite from the window of a small plane. There is a cruise ship in port. A big low puffy white cloud obscures the townsite. Mountains and low cloud ceiling in the background.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jul 9

It’s a good thing my mom got me this handy little travel kaleidoscope with my name engraved on it, so it won’t get mixed up with anyone else’s kaleidoscope.

A miniature brass kaleidoscope with the name Shannon engraved on it, and a brass colored cord to wear around the neck, resting in the palm of my hand.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jul 9

Preliminary packing list for a tall ship expedition in the High Arctic. Every time I board a ship or boat, it’s the same question of whether to bring the cursed rosary or the haunted one, or both. Not always the same answer. Kaleidoscope, obviously, for looking at polar bears through.

A hand scrawled packing list for Svalbard (a high Arctic archipelago). The items on the list are binocs, camera (?), notebooks, pens, reading material, kaleidoscope, water from holy well, rosaries — cursed or haunted?

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jul 5

Totally forgot I picked up nice whiskeys as a little treat for having yo go to tax-free Salem, New Hampshire!! The West Cork and Natterjack are the new additions to the books-and-spirits shelf.

A wooden bookshelf with slate accents, with a row of Irish whiskeys (Teeling, a friend’s dead father’s poitín, given to me upon the death of my own father, Natterjack, Lá Le Bríde from Dingle Distillery, and Dingle Single Malt) in front of a row of fiction books.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jul 5

A Lowly Worm doll in a woman’s hand. Lowly Worm is a very dapper earthworm from Richard Scarrey’s picture books. He stands upright and wears a green felt Robin Hood cap with a red feather in it, a blue button down shirt, a red bow tie, a green pant leg, and a red lace up shoe. Nobody knows how Lowly ties his shoe! He is always smiling and good-natured. Some people believe he is even cuter than Slimey the Worm from Sesame Street.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jul 5

Going through the box of childhood toys I keep for when kids come over, and giving the toys some TLC. It seems like Winston, Chewy, Hammerhead, Red, and this frog deserve more prominent placement in my house. It also occurs to me that I should break out this box for the adults from time to time!

A box of vintage 80s toys including the Fischer Price Submarine and Jeep. In front of the box are action figures: Winston from Ghostbusters strapped into a Fischer Price parachute toy, Chewbacca, Hammerhead from Star Wars, Red from Fraggle Rock driving an awesome car made out of a radish, and a plastic tropical frog toy.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jul 4

The contractor who will install my heat pump next week quoted me an eye-watering $3,000 to demo this oil tank stand. Said it would take 2 guys 1 1/2 to 2 days to demo. Reader, I just completed this task in 45 minutes, including cleanup and careful sweep for stray nails.

A timber frame stand that once held up a tank for heating fuel, behind a cedar-sided house, with a ladder next to it.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jul 1

Making the most of my last day in Massachusetts!

A dish of raw cherrystones (quahog clams) and oysters on ice.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jul 1

Packing up and wondering whether I should visit my late parents’ (cursed and haunted) house one last time to say goodbye. I pulled a card…..

An Eight of Cups tarot card from Kim Krantz’s The Wild Unknown deck. An ominous image of 8 broken wine glasses in front of a dark shadowy mountain. Text from the interpretive guidebook reads: erght of cups
STAGNATION, ILL HEALTH
The Eight of Cups sends an urgent message to pack your bags and move on.
There is no hope of rekindling what's been lost. You must start anew. This card also points to phases of illness and physical stagnation. The message could not be more clear: nothing good remains for you here. Lift your eyes to the horizon, and let your feet lead you forward.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jun 21

After I had found my mom’s creepy doll, Buttons, who had gone on walkabout of her own agency….

A creepy tattered girl doll from the 1940s with orange/red yarn braids and stuffing coming out of her foot.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jun 21

Alas, poor Yorick….

A hand holding a replica of a human skull in front of a bookcase.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Jun 18

Clam chowder and a Sam Adams on Boston Harbor of a June evening. Remembering when Sam Adams was referred to as “dark beer,” which was code for craft beer, but we didn’t have or know that term back then. My cool friends referred to it as “dank beer” in the 90s.

View of the Boston skyline and a water taxi from across Boston Harbor in East Boston, with a swirly sky and a bit of sunset.

Patio on Boston Harbor at sunset, with trees and the (exceedingly boring) World Cup on a big tv that’s been wheeled outside for the soccer tourists.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· May 30

So today I witnessed the shrew wiggling the door from the inside to escape! I developed a new plan. The inner bag is loud & crinkly so I would hear the shrew escape and have time to block off the other door and capture it. It’s flimsy though, so the outer bag would buy me a little more time.

The same humane life trap with a double bag system taped to the outside of one end to hopefully catch the shrew on its way out. Some strips of cardboard are beside the trap so i could easily grab them to block off the other door once the shrew had entered.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· May 30

Update on my shrewmate. I spent the spring trying and modifying all manner of shrew-catching devices, with no success. Lately, I wondered if it was a ghost shrew, because I’d hear it rattling around in the trap, but when I took it outside there was never a shrew inside! He’d figured out the door.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· May 23

Excited to finally be home to my record player for my first listen to this record by the incredible uilleann piper Seán McKeon. I had the great privilege of hearing him play at the inaugural Tunes on the Charles festival in Somerville, Mass last month. #ceol #UilleannPipes @itmadublin.bsky.social

A turntable with a yellow vinyl record, Salamanca, by Seán McKeon, the incredibly talented uilleann piper. The record cover is a textured oil painting of mainly charcoal grey with a rough yellow horizontal line across the middle, with a thin orange line in the middle of that, bordered by even thinner charcoal grey lines. The record label is white with black/grey clouds.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· May 18

If you see this, post your getaway vehicle.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· May 18

“Period pollution” does not exist. Plasticky absorbent things are indeed a problem, caused by manufacturers of plasticky absorbent things. Microplastic pollution is a serious problem. MENSTRUATING BODIES ARE NOT DIRTY, TOXIC, OR POLLUTING. Let’s not confuse plastic products with menstruation.

A dispenser for little garbage bags for the disposal of tampons and pads. It reads: “fab little bag. Please don’t flush! Reduce period pollution in our rivers and oceans.” Blaming the naturally cleansing process of menstruation—rather than the plastics in many tampons and pads, or the corporations that put plastic in menstrual absorbers—for plastic pollution.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· May 16

I had forgotten about Homer’s spring pterodactyl migration.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· May 7

This was me after just one hour in the sunny southern latitudes of Massachusetts.

A white woman with long brown hair and a very bad, lobstah-red sunburn showing the contrast with her very pale, not-sunburnt skin that was protected by her dress.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· May 6

Thrilled to be joined on the beach by a few Atlantic oystercatchers with their big carrot beaks! And a purple sandpiper (I think). Pavilion Beach, Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Purple sandpiper (I think) wading in shallow ocean water near a small rock with barnacles and periwinkles on it.

Two Atlantic oystercatchers foraging in the rocks along the shore in front of three gulls. Plum Island in the background across the salt water.

An Atlantic oystercatcher with its beautiful giant orange carrot-like beak standing on a rock on the shore in front of three gulls.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· May 5

Found on my late mother’s bookshelf, annotated in her handwriting & that of Phillis Christina Staffier, who owned this copy before her. I’m so saddened that in the course of my 27-year obsession with this text, my mother never once mentioned having read it! Looking forward to her annotations.

A battered old paperback copy of Ulysses by James Joyce.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· May 1

When you can’t be in West Kerry, but West Kerry medicine comes to you. @itmadublin.bsky.social #DrawingFromTheWell #ceol #TunesOnTheCharles

Cormac Begley playing concertina on stage at the Somerville Theater, part of the Drawing from the Well concert series at the Tunes on the Charles Irish traditional music festival.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Apr 29

Any #RedSox fans know who this is? I found it among my late father’s belongings and can’t make out the autograph.

An autographed vintage photo of a Red Sox player in his batting stance.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Apr 29

Is unaware of continuous morphological gradients of a trait across a geographic range.

Shannon Kelly Donahue@shannonkellydonahue· Apr 28

Arrived in Boston to start dealing with the chaos my parents left behind when they died. It really hit me when I stepped off the plane that this is my first arrival in Boston without my parents waiting for me on this end. 💔 Nervous about the ghosts that do await me here.