Shanti Hershenson

Shanti Hershenson is a writing machine at the age of only fifteen. Her first two novellas, Odyssey: The First Adventure and Odyssey: Diamond Ballad, were self-published in the sixth grade on Amazon. With fifteen books published, thirteen unreleased, and one work-in-progress, Shanti has a successful career ahead of her. She advocates for anti-bullying, does volunteer work, and performs poetry at open mic nights. Shanti mostly writes in the Science Fiction genre but wants to expand to Fantasy and Contemporary fiction. In her free time, she enjoys skateboarding, fencing, and the obvious: reading. 

What started as almost a mistake turned into the start of Shanti Hershenson’s career at the age of eleven years old. In the sixth grade, Shanti and her friend wanted printed copies of their book, Odyssey, that they wrote together. The internet was the place they went to make this dream come true. 

“We learned about self-publishing and that would give us a printed copy of it, and of course put it on Amazon. I didn’t entirely understand what I was doing when I hit the publish button. I was so young, I was like eleven years old, but now I’m really grateful for it,” Shanti shares. 

Shanti Hershenson knew from the very moment she stepped into a bookstore and started exploring the world of novels that she wanted to be an author. The on-accident publishing was the first step to securing her passion and opened up opportunities for her to write and publish future books. 

Shanti’s first two books, Odyssey: The First Adventure and Odyssey: Diamond Ballad, were released in 2020. The novels follow Kane, a kitten, as he finds himself in another world. In Odyssey: The First Adventure, Kane goes through challenges while uncovering his connections to the world. Continuing his adventure in Odyssey: Diamond Ballad, Kane must save the world. He embarks on quests, reveals an astonishing secret, and comes across a girl that answers everything. 

Since releasing her two novellas, Shanti has written and published fifteen novels, her most popular being Helipads in Heaven. Her newest, Little Green Man, is set to be released on April 29, 2024. 

Helipads in Heaven follows Dillon Hershkop, an author, who is granted an opportunity to become a test subject for a time-traveling experiment. In this story, Shanti explores time travel and childhood aspirations, speaking to any children out there that dare to dream. 

Shanti’s next anticipated novel, Little Green Man, follows Birdie Buckley, an alien enthusiast, as she tries to find proof that humans do not walk alone in the universe in the small town she lives in called Mount Pitfork, Colorado. Sol, the new kid in her high school, joins her in this adventure. Little Green Man is a mix of E.T. and the X-Files as it uncovers aliens as well as the dark side of the high school experience. 

When asked what advice she’d give her friends who want to write a book, Shanti said, “I would tell them to just begin writing. If it’s a friend that wants to start writing a novel, I would tell them to go for it, try to figure out the characters as much as they can, and just start writing that story and see where it goes.” Shanti continued, “I always say you don’t have to plot your book, you can just go for it.”

Shanti writes a little bit every single day. This challenges her to move the story along, as well as preventing her from burning out. She makes sure she gets all of her writing done before making plans.

In her writing, Shanti noticed she has created families similar to her own and said, “I’ve lived in America my entire life, however, my family is ethnically Jewish, so we celebrate Jewish holidays as well as Christmas. I do have some characters that do that too.” She’s grateful that she’s able to create characters that celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. It allows her to feel more connected to her characters, and she hopes others can relate as well. 

As Shanti continues to write future books in the Science Fiction genre, she has an immense amount of support from her family as well as from the people who read her books and other teen authors. She loves being able to get feedback from the young authors she meets at events, feeling as though there is always something she can learn from them. Shanti feels the most comfortable around people who love to write — it doesn’t matter if they have published a novel or not. The caring, comforting atmosphere around her fans and other writers is what keeps her going. 

“I don’t want to say I was a weird kid, but I didn’t have as many friends as I do now and I kind of felt a little out of place, because there wasn’t much I was doing that I thought was special,” Shanti said when asked if becoming an author changed her self-image. Her confidence has increased since the start of her career as well as her connection with her readers. Writing has given her something to be passionate and excited about. She loves to talk about her writing as much as she can and feels she can help fellow teen authors with their books. 

Through Shanti’s writing journey, she has experienced some difficult days, where she doesn’t know what to write, or where her book is going. She has dealt with bad reviews, which leave her unmotivated and upset. 

“I have to remind myself of all the positivity, but at the same time, these are only temporary things, and overall it’s been such a great experience that I really can’t get stuck on them,” said Shanti in her interview with Zhive. She’s grateful for all of her success so far in her career that even on her bad days, she powers through it. 

Shanti is proud of who she is and everything that she’s doing. She won’t be changing anytime soon as she isn’t afraid to love the TV shows and movies she adores. She's been inspired by countless books and authors, but one speaks to her like no other.

“My favorite author is Leigh Bardugo and I’ve met her a couple of times. She’s a really nice and really cool person,” Shanti said. “She’s very much inspired me, and for example, she has really dark character backstories, and that inspired me to make some of my books darker even though they’re young adult books.” 

Besides the Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows series by Leigh Bardugo, Shanti reveals another book that keeps her going is The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Her goal one day is to write a book similar to it that is as full of sorrow as it is inspiring and exhilarating. However, she only recently started dipping her toes into writing contemporary pieces and feels she still has a long way to go before she’ll be able to write a novel close to The Perks of Being a Wallflower. 

Shanti Hershenson began her writing journey at a very young age, after which her goal to have a printed copy of a book she wrote turned into her greatest passion. Her younger self would be quite surprised with all the books she’s written and published. 

“Don’t give up,” Shanti said when asked what she would tell her younger self. “I would tell myself, don’t care what other people think. Don’t listen and instead do it just because you love it and not because you’re good or bad, just write.” 

Shanti’s journey won’t stop here. She plans to write more books and also write screenplays, hoping one day in the future, her books will be adapted into a movie or TV show. She wants to be remembered for her books, being a good person, and being nice to the people around her. 

To learn more about Shanti Hershenson and her books, you can visit her website at https://www.shantihershenson.com/. Be sure to support this teen author and her writing journey.

Watch the full video interview here!