Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing

Susan is the author of five critically acclaimed books, including her newest, best-selling novel Landslide, named a New York Times Book Review "Editor’s Choice," a TODAY Show “Summer Read,” and a "Best Book" by Good Morning America, The New York Post, Medium, Bustle, Biblio Lifestyle and others. Her previous, best-selling novel, Elsey Come Home, was a "Best Book" at Oprah Magazine, Marie Claire, Pop Sugar, Huffington Post, Southern Living, Fodors and others, and was also an "Editor’s Choice” pick at Amazon. Her writing has appeared in magazines and journals including The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, Lithub, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Harvard Review. She’s been awarded multiple fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, as well as fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Maine Arts Commission, and the Massachusetts Arts Council. She's won the Maine Book Award and the Maine Award for Publishing Excellence and has been a featured Tedx Speaker, where her talk the "Power of Story," has been viewed widely. She’s taught at colleges and international art-residencies including Emerson College, Colby College, The University of Massachusetts, as the Jack Kerouac Visiting Fellow, The Haystack School, The Spannochia Foundation, La Napoule Foundation, and The Beijing Hutong. She lives in Portland, Maine, where she is the co-founder and prior executive director of the Telling Room, a youth creative writing lab that believes in the power of story to change lives and communities.