Susan Terris was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She has a B.A. degree in English literature from Wellesley College and an M.A. from San Francisco State University.
Ms.Terris has written poetry since she was an undergraduate in classes being taught by Richard Wilbur, David Ferry, and Philip Booth. Her writing career, however, began in the field of children's fiction. She had 21 books published by New York houses such as Doubleday, Macmillan, Scholastic, and Farrar, Straus & Giroux. During the same period, she also wrote poetry and had poems published from time to time. About 25 years ago, Ms.Terris began to find herself consumed by the writing of poetry. Since then she's written and published only poetry.
Her poetry books include THE HOMELESSNESS OF SELF, CONTRARIWISE, NATURAL DEFENSES, FIRE IS FAVORABLE TO THE DREAMER, Poetic License, and EYE OF THE HOLOCAUST. Her work has appeared in many publications including: The Iowa Review, Field, The Journal, Colorado Review, Prairie Schooner, Spillway, The Southern Review,Volt, Denver Quarterly, and Ploughshares. She had a poem from Field publishedin PUSHCART PRIZE XXXI.
For seven years, with CB Follett, she edited RUNES, A Review Of Poetry. She is now editor of Spillway and a poetry editor for Pedestal Magazine and In Posse Review. In addition to writing & journal editing, she does freelance editing of book-length poetry manuscripts and teaches workshops on “The Making of a Chapbook”. With CB Follett, she hosts a series of weekend workshops taught by David St. John.
She is married and lives in San Francisco with her husband David. In her spare time, she enjoys baking, kayaking, reading, and pursuing surprising activities with her 12 grandchildren.
Photo: Susan Grossman
Susan Terris
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