Susan Stinson is the author of the novels Martha Moody (Small Beer, 2020) and Spider in a Tree (Small Beer, 2013, historical with preaching insects.) She also received the Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize from Lambda Literary. Her other novels are Venus of Chalk (Small Beer Press, e-book, 2022; Firebrand Books, 2004) and Fat Girl Dances with Rocks (Spinsters Ink, 1994). Belly Songs: in celebration of fat women (Orogeny, 93) is a collection of poetry and essays. Her work has appeared in anthologies from Ballantine Books, NYU Press and Scholastic Books, and in many periodicals, including Strange Horizons. A series of four short essays on writing craft, including “Body in the Mirror” appeared in Poets & Writers Online (April and May 2021). Her essay “Fat Stories” is in The Contemporary Reader for Gender and Fat Studies, ed. Amy Farrell. (Routledge, 2023). Her essay “Slow” is in The Portable Feminist Reader, ed. Roxane Gay (Penguin Classics, 2025). Her story “Rocking Horse” is forthcoming in WSQ (Feminist Press, Fall 2026). Her essay “October Air” is forthcoming in Pocket Stars, ed. Andrea Lawlor (Penguin/Random House, Spring 2027).
She has taught fiction writing at Amherst College and Smith College in Northampton, MA, where she has also been Writer-in-Residence at Forbes Library. She can be found online at http://susanstinson.net/. She lives in Northampton, where she writes essays, rides her trike, and writes fiction featuring lampreys.