Susan Tichy

Poet

Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado US

Author's Bio

Susan Tichy is the author of six books, most recently The Avalanche Path in Summer, a muscle-memory of a life in mountains, and Trafficke, a mixed-form investigation of family, race, and language spanning from Reformation Scotland to the abolition of slavery in Maryland. She has written extensively about war and its human consequences, including the volumes Gallowglass (Ahsahta, 2010), Bone Pagoda (Ahsahta, 2007), and A Smell of Burning Starts the Day (Wesleyan, 1988). Her first book The Hands in Exile (Random House, 1983) was selected for the National Poetry Series. Her work has been published in the US, UK, and Australia, and been recognized by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Pushcart Prize, a Chad Walsh Poetry Prize, and numerous other awards. Recently retired from 30 years teaching in George Mason University’s MFA & BFA programs, she lives in Colorado, dividing her time between her hand-built, solar-heated mountain cabin, and a city hide-away, where she walks, writes, makes paper, and offers private instruction and manuscript consultations.

Publications & Prizes

Books:
The Avalanche Path in Summer (Ahsahta Press, 2019)
,
Trafficke (Ahsahta Press, 2015)
,
Gallowglass (Ahsahta Press, 2010)
,
Bone Pagoda (Ahsahta Press, 2007)
,
A Smell of Burning Starts the Day (Wesleyan University Press, 1988)
,
The Hands in Exile (Random House, 1983)
Prizes won: 

National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; National Poetry Series; Pushcart Prize; Chad Walsh Poetry Prize; Eugene M. Kayden Award for Poetry; Runes Poetry Prize; Indiana Review Poetry Prize; Tupelo Press Broadside Prize; Quarter After Eight Prose Award.

Residencies at The Booth (Shetland), Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers (Scotland), Sweeney's Bothy (Isle of Eigg, Scotland), Timespan (Sutherland, Scotland), Ucross Foundation (Wyoming).

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Oh so many. Czeslaw Milosz, Marianne Moore, Lorine Niedecker, George Oppen. Among contemporaries: Allison Cobb, Alec Finlay, Susan Howe, Harryette Mullen, M. Nourbese Philip, Claudia Rankine, Arthur Sze, Brian Teare, C.D. Wright.

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Born in: 
Washington DC
Raised in: 
Silver Spring, MD
Maryland
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Mar 14, 2020