Susan Scott works at the crossroads of story, spirit, self, and culture, collaborating with artists, activists, and scholars to innovate, inspire, and to heal across the generations.
Books include Body & Soul: Stories for Stories and Seekers, an unorthodox anthology of women writers and poets. Stories in My Neighbour’s Faith: Narratives from World Religions in Canada features leading voices from across the country. Temple in a Teapot, a chapbook that plumbs the sublime and suppressed in American religious history, was launched on a 1,000-mile tour of western states.
Works-in-progress: A life writing workbook, from concept to bookshelf; a collaboration with Lana Cullis, Sharon Hines, et al, and Creative Connex. Creative nonfiction includes: Sainted Dirt, a memoir on shame and the sacred in the lives of women and girls; Blood, Sand, Bread, a chapbook on the ecology of memory; and a life writing collaboration between women writers and theologians in Canada and abroad. Details TBA.
Editing, teaching & directing: Susan has midwifed more than 20 books and dozens of award-winning essays, and has taught in communities and classrooms in the U.S. and Canada, including at Renison University College, St. Jerome’s University, and Wilfrid Laurier University, with guest lectures at the Yale Institute for Sacred Music (ISM). Arts adjudication includes National Magazine Awards and national literary contests as well as regional arts granting. Susan has been co-chair of the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund and associate creative director of the Wild Writers Literary Festival. She directed the Wild Writers Mentorship Program and Write on the French River Creative Writing Retreat.
Susan is a consulting editor with The New Quarterly (TNQ), where she served as the magazine’s lead nonfiction editor (2012-9).
Award-winning collaborations include: humanitarian arts initiatives, the Walkerton Water Stories Project and the Water Stories Project (2000-05), and Native Immigrant’s culture work in Montreal and Chile (2013-23). The life writing webinars she co-founded (2020-23) attracted a diverse audience that continues to mentor rising writers.
Interdisciplinary expertise in anthropology, fine arts, and religious studies included field work with Holocaust survivors (doctoral work, University of Pittsburgh). Susan holds an MA in Religion & Culture (Wilfrid Laurier University), a graduate certificate in spiritual direction (Jubilee Program), and a graduate certificate in creative writing from the Humber School for Writers.
Watch for Susan cycling, wicker basket brimming with veggies and baguettes.