S usan studied in London and Paris where she worked closely with leading French feminists including Hélène Cixous, whom she has translated. Since 2005 she has been general editor of the Cambridge University Press edition of Virginia Woolf’s writing and volume editor of The Waves. Her non-fiction books include women’s cultural and literary history, feminism, and the art of writing. She was the first woman to be appointed Professor of Literature in English and Creative Writing at St Andrews University and in Scotland.
Susan’s fiction has been published in 20 countries and 16 languages. Vanessa and Virginia, about the intense, enabling but also occasionally rivalrous and destructive relationship between sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers and Indie-Next selection, and editor’s choice in The New York Times. Set in the contemporary art world and experimental in form, Given the Choice offers the reader the choice of what happens, riffing on the different ways novels typically end.
Susan’s most recent novel Firebird tells the extraordinary love story of British economist John Maynard Keynes and Russian dancer Lydia Lopokova.
Susan is represented by Jenny Brown at Jenny Brown Associates