Photograph by Jody Wheat
Susan Stinson, Writer-In-Residence Emeritus, served from 2010-2015. She is the award-winning author of four novels and a book of poetry and lyric essays. She has received grants and fellowships from the Barbara Deming/Money for Women Fund, the Wurlitzer Foundation, the Millay Colony, and the Blue Mountain Center, among others. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and journals, including Kenyon Review, Seneca Review and The Women’s Review of Books. She has given more than a hundred readings, speeches and workshops across the country, and also offers cemetery tours and talks about local history. SPIDER IN A TREE, her novel about Northampton in the time of 18th century Calvinist preacher Jonathan Edwards, was published by Small Beer Press. Her website is www.susanstinson.net.
You can view videos of Susan Stinson reading from Spider in a Tree at the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University.
Susan’s Writer In Residence programs included the popular Local History/Local Novelists reading and lecture series, which ran five seasons, October through May, (mostly) at 7 pm on the first Wednesday of the month in the Coolidge Room. See link for details. In addition, Susan facilitates the Writing Room, a space for writing together, 9:30 – 12:30 Wednesdays and Saturdays in the Watson Room. She also coordinated the Writing Life, a monthly summer discussion group for writers working on long term projects.
Susan thinks that Forbes Library is an outstanding community resource and is excited about making contributions to its work.
Press
- Writer Susan Stinson of Northampton honors theologian with Bridge Street Cemetery tours
- How to Fall: An Interview with Susan Stinson in Plum GCC’s online literary journal
- Susan Stinson writes about the value of fiction on The Public Humanist
- Interview with Susan on the Public Humanist blog (sponsored by the Mass Humanities Council)
- Writer-In-Residence Susan Stinson wins Lambda Literary Award
- Susan Stinson writes about the Writer in Residence program on the Library As Incubator Project (via Archive.org)
- 5 Ways Libraries Cultivate Community Art on The Huffington Post
- Susan Stinson on Wikipedia.org
Reviews
- Spider in a Tree
- Books and Culture: A Christian Review
- The Concord Monitor (Concord, NH)
- The Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA)
- Historical Novel Society
- Publisher’s Weekly
- The Republican (Springfield, MA)