Margaret Silverwood was born in South Australia in 1966, migrated to Dunedin, New Zealand in 1981 and now lives in Whanganui. She has written and illustrated three children's picture books under the name Margaret Shannon, which have been published in Australia, New Zealand, the U.S.A., Great Britain, and Korea. After completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking at the Quay School of the Arts, Whanganui UCOL in 2004, Margaret has exhibited throughout New Zealand. Margaret has also self-published two mini-comics, and taught an elective in Comics and Graphic Storytelling at Whanganui UCOL.
Margaret Silverwood's printmaking and drawing reflects her interest in human beings' troubled relationship with the rest of nature, our colonial past, the relationship of Europeans to Pacific cultures, and the pitfalls of modern living.