Susan Garrod-Schuster

Susan always knew she would write stories when her grade 4 teacher pinned the first one on the classroom wall amid resounding applause. It niggled away at her through an undergrad degree in English Literature, through a graduate degree in Theology, through a 30-year career as a United Church Minister and Chaplain, and through a 10-year stint as a University Instructor in Peace and Conflict Studies. It took retirement to turn all those hours of writing sermons, lectures, and essays for work into the joy of true storytelling.

The vibrancy of Chau's story has enlivened the passion that Susan always felt bubbling away below the surface, and now brought to life on the pages of Biography of a Woman. Susan has begun work on her first collection of short stories about the humorous antics of an innocent young minister in his first church in a small prairie town. Through many months of writing the true stories of ordinary people for community magazines, Susan developed depth and breadth in her biographical style which gives readers a window into a different world and grows the understanding that can build bridges.

Susan brings the perspective of being an immigrant herself, a Canadian citizen born in England, surviving the anxiety of homesickness, resettlement in a new land, and the grief of mourning a country far away. Her friendship with Chau continues to sensitize her to the traumas, dreams, and strengths of the migrating peoples of the world.