Susan’s World

Short Autobiography

I was born in the land of honesty, energy, curiosity and corn. Some would say that all these elements have their influence on my work.

After attending Marywood High School for Girls and St. Mary’s College, I received a B.A. in English Literature from Marquette University and have a nearly-finished MFA from Northeastern Illinois University.

I am a writer, a mother, a grandmother and a widow, so paraphrasing the words of Faulkner's Dilsey, I have seen the best and the worst, the first and the last. I have seen worlds blow apart and life turn inside out in less time than it takes to type this sentence.

In addition to my writing, I am proudest of the following: falling in love with and having the courage to stay married for many years to a wonderful man whose death I will grieve for the rest of my life; producing a perfect son who married the perfect woman who gave me three perfect grandchildren; being commissioned by the American Jewish Committee to paint a diptych of and thereby begin an affair with The Lower East Side lasting over ten years and leading to my recognition as an authority on the subject of the Great European Migration to lower Manhattan at the turn of the twentieth century.

Currently I am writing a novel called “Dreaming Of Elizabeth” about an impoverished family of Sicilian artisans who migrate to America at the turn of the twentieth century. They settle on Elizabeth Street with their six children and a boarder in a three-room apartment. It has no running water, no gas or electricity, a coal-burning stove and one window letting in a bit of fetid air and dirty light. Yet their pursuit of the American Dream prevailed in a place and time when the length of a work day was fourteen hours, cholera, typhoid and tuberculosis were epidemics, more than 100,000 homeless children in New York searched each night for shelter and worlds turned inside out in less time than it takes to type this sentence. Some of life’s experiences are the same for all of us.

Click here to read excerpts.