Bio

Writer’s bio

The writing bug bit Susan Lawson in the fourth grade at Hendy Avenue Elementary School, in Elmira, NY, when she wrote and starred in her first play. Her authorial and stage debut before her classmates was a response to her soon-to-retire teacher—who was appropriately named Mrs. Lynch—casting only blue-eyed students in the official class play. These blue-eyed students portrayed, no less, “broken” books coming alive to explain how to prevent their demise.

Since then Susan has worked as a journalist, high school English teacher and publications adviser, graphic designer, business communicator and speaker, seeing the world forever anew through the same pair of discriminating brown eyes that helped her redefine teacher-student relations on her own terms in grade school.

In 2005 she completed Amherst Writers & Artists training for writing group leaders and became a member of the AWA Affiliate Network. Her writing workshops, which follow Amherst practices, are a popular “sell-out” at many central Indiana libraries and various other venues.

Susan was born in western Pennsylvania and partly raised in the Finger Lake region of upstate New York, which she visits whenever she can—in person, in dreams or via her pen. A Hoosier since age 13, she holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and English from Butler University, Indianapolis, where she’s also done graduate work.

She and her husband Chris live in southeast suburban Indianapolis, where she negotiates with two aging sister-cats, Katie and Molly, for desk space by the sunny south-facing windows.

Susan’s nonfiction work has appeared in the Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis Monthly and a variety of other regional publications. More recently, her short story, “Annunciation,” was published in the literary journal Peregrine. She was also the profile author for Indianapolis: Leading the Way (Towery: 2000). She serves on the board of Fresh Start of Indiana and is a member of the Writers Center of Indiana.

For more than a decade, Susan was active in the International Association of Business Communicators and served in leadership roles at local, regional and international levels. She earned IABC’s accredited business communicator (ABC) designation in 1993, and in 1998 IABC/Indy named her its Communicator of the Year.

She has also served on the board of Central Indiana Friends of Jung and on PR/marketing committees for the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Storytelling Arts of Indiana, and the Indiana Arthritis and National Glaucoma foundations.