Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Minnesota, Susan Wheeler is the author of a novel, Record Palace, and six books of poetry, Bag 'o' Diamonds, Smokes, Source Codes, Ledger, Assorted Poems and Meme, which was short-listed for the National Book Award. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, The New York Times, Paris Review and numerous editions of The Best American Poetry; she is the recipient of The American Academy of Arts and Letters' Witter Bynner Prize, two fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.
After years as a fast-food worker, gas jockey, auto mechanic and public information director at colleges and universities, Susan Wheeler began teaching. She has taught at the University of Iowa Writers Workshops, Columbia University and New York University, among other MFA programs, and currently she is Professor Emerita at Princeton University. She lives in Philadelphia.
Drawing by Viet Tran.