Susan Straight is the author of six novels including Aquaboogie (Milkweed Editions, 1990), I Been In Sorrow’s Kitchen and Licked Out All The Pots (Hyperion, 1992, Anchor paperback, 1993), Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights (Hyperion, 1994, Anchor paperback 1995), The Gettin Place (Hyperion 1996, Anchor paperback 1997), and Highwire Moon (Houghton Mifflin, 2001), which was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Commonwealth of California Gold Medal for Fiction. Highwire Moon was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and Los Angeles Times bestseller, and was named one of the year’s best novels by TheSan Francisco Chronicle and TheWashington Post. Highwire Moon was released in paperback by Anchor Books in October, 2002, the same year it was optioned for film by Little Monument Pictures. The project is in development.

Susan has published essays and articles in numerous magazines and journals including The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine (now WEST), Harpers, The Believer, The Nation, Organic Style, Reader’s Digest, Real Simple, Family Circle, Salon, Oxford American, Ms. and The Ruminator Review.

Her short fiction has appeared in Zoetrope All-Story, McSweeney’s, TriQuarterly, Story, Ploughshares, The Ontario Review , and North American Review, among other magazines. Her short story “Mines” was chosen for Best American Short Stories 2003 and won a Pushcart Prize in Fiction. Her short story “Bridgework” was a Distinguished Story in Best American Short Stories 2004. Additionally, Susan’s commentaries are frequently heard on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

Susan was born in Riverside , California in 1960, and still lives there with her three daughters. She has taught creative writing at University of California , Riverside , since 1988.

For more information, please visit www.creativewriting.ucr.edu/people/straight/index.html or www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=30074

Susan Straight will appear on Saturday, Oct. 28, 11 am, in the Salt Lake City Main Library, Conference Room C.