Meet Susan

Meet Susan Cushman

Susan was born in Jackson, Mississippi and went to school at the University of Mississippi. She moved to Memphis in 1988 where she and her husband continued to raise their three children. Fast forward thirty-two years, and they have four granddaughters!

Susan was co-director of the 2013 and 2010 Oxford  (Mississippi) Creative Nonfiction Conferences.  She was director of the 2011 Memphis Creative Nonfiction Workshop. She was a panelist at the 2017 Decatur Book Festival, the  2012, 2017, and 2018 Southern Festival of Books, the 2017 and 2018 Mississippi Book Festival, the 2013, 2017, 2018 and 2019 Louisiana Book Festival, the 2018 Mississippi Writers Guild Conference, the 2018 Alabama Writers Conclave Conference, the 2018 Pat Conroy Literary Center Visiting Author Series, the 2019 Southern Literary Festival, and the 2020 AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Professionals) annual conference.

Her published books include three she has written: Friends of the Library (short stories), Tangles and Plaques: A Mother and Daughter Face Alzheimer’s (a memoir), and Cherry Bomb (a novel).  She has edited three collections of essays: A Second Blooming: Becoming the Women We Are Meant to Be,  Southern Writers Writing, and The Pulpwood Queens Celebrate 20 Years! In addition she has over a dozen essays published in four anthologies and various journals and magazines. Susan’s seventh book and second novel, John and Mary Margaret, is forthcoming from Koehler books in June of 2021! Stay tuned for cover reveal and more information soon!

Much of Susan’s writing is infused with elements of her own life, including the very mystical spirituality of her Orthodox Christian faith and the personal demons she has been chasing since childhood. Her essays, short stories, memoir, and novel all reflect what she has learned through many dark nights of the soul, but also contain elements of hope and healing and honor her Southern roots.

CONTACT: You can reach Susan at sjcushman@gmail.com