Susan grew up—for the most part—in Greensboro, North Carolina. She also lived in California, Alabama, Illinois, and Indiana as a child. Upon graduating from Western Carolina University, she spent a year teaching English as a Foreign Language in Vologda, Russia. When she returned, she spent a few years teaching middle school in Lenoir, North Carolina before resigning to begin a family with her husband Danny and to spend more time on her writing. In May 2004, Susan received a Master in Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing from Queens University, and in September 2007, her first novel, The Traveling Disease, was published by Main Street Rag. Her short story collection, Springtime on Mars, was published by Press 53 in May 2008.

Susan credits a number of people and books with helping shape and sustain her work. Early on, Carol Carney, her next-door neighbor in Claremont, California, encouraged her very first stories and introduced her to a number of great books, including Gulliver’s Travels and Anne of Green Gables. Years and years later, at a Salvation Army thrift store, Susan picked up a copy of John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany. From Irving, she learned an appreciation for the architecture of the novel, and a few years later, she learned the power of voice from Bret Lott’s Jewel. Other influences include Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road, Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping and Gilead, Brad Watson’s The Heaven of Mercury, and Aimee Bender’s The Girl in the Flammable Skirt.

Susan lives in the foothills of North Carolina where she homeschools her two children and writes.