Susan J. Watson

Susan J. Watson was born in New York City and received her first writing award from "The Catholic Hour" for her essay, "Shrove Tuesday and Making a Good Start for Lent." She attended parochial and private Catholic schools until she attended Vassar College ('69) where she majored in Drama. Her acting ambitions were sidetracked by her anti-war activities during the Vietnam War when she briefly worked for the newspaper, The Rat and subsequently moved to Montana where she wrote her book, Birds That Stay, which won the Montana Arts First Book Award in 1982. She returned East to study poetry with Yehuda Amichai at NYU and to work in theatre and film (under the name Susan Kostalow). After a long writing silence, she studied fiction at Bennington to receive her MFA. The first chapter of her novel in stories, Virgin Martyrs and Runaway Daughters has been published in Inkwell. She works with children whose first language is not English and currently lives in Connecticut where she raises bees and writes when not gardening, reading, or cooking.