Susan Rich is the author of four previous poetry collections, including Cloud Pharmacy; The Alchemist’s Kitchen, named a finalist for the Forward Prize and the Washington State Book Award; Cures Include Travel; and The Cartographer’s Tongue, winner of the PEN USA Award and the Peace Corps Writers Prize (White Pine Press). She co-edited The Strangest of Theatres: Poets Writing Across Borders (McSweeneys). Her poems and essays have been published in seven different countries.
Rich has received awards and fellowships from Fulbright Foundation, PEN USA, The Times Literary Supplement of London, Peace Corps Writers, Artist Trust, CityArtists, and 4Culture. She has worked as a staff person for Amnesty International, an electoral supervisor in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a human rights trainer in Gaza and the West Bank. Rich lived in the Republic of Niger, West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer, later moving to South Africa to teach at the University of Cape Town on a Fulbright Fellowship. Her awards include: the Times (London) Literary Supplement Award, a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Ireland and a residency at Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain. Other poetry honors include an Artist Trust Fellowship, 4 Culture Awards, a Seattle CityArtist Project Award, GAP Awards, and participation in the Cúirt Literary Festival in Galway, Ireland.
Rich is an alumna of Hedgebrook, the Helen Whiteley Center, Millay Colony for the Arts, and the Ucross Foundation. She has served on the boards of Crab Creek Review, Floating Bridge Press and Whit Press. Educated at the University of Massachusetts, Harvard University, and the University of Oregon, Susan Rich lives in Seattle and teaches at Highline College where she runs the reading series, Highline Listens: Writers Read Their Work. She is co-founder and director of Poets on the Coast: A Weekend Writing Retreat for Women. More information is easily accessed at www.poetsusanrich.com
