Susan is an experienced teacher and coach who thrives on guiding and encouraging students through the many challenges of the writing process. She has taught writing and literature courses at Johns Hopkins, Oxford, and École Polytechnique and has also worked as a private writing coach to college applicants and adult authors for more than twenty years. She loves helping students turn nervous first drafts into polished narratives that woo admissions committees and transform the way students see themselves. She views the essay as an adventure in perspective, a powerful tool for boosting our self-esteem, perceiving unexpected connections, and enhancing the meaning we derive from our lives.

Susan received a BA in English Literature from Dartmouth, an MFA in Poetry from Johns Hopkins, and a PhD in English Literature from Oxford University, where she was a Clarendon Scholar and the Somerville Graduate Scholar in the Humanities. She has also held research positions at Columbia and Caltech. Her poetry, essays, and academic articles have been published in journals such as The Paris Review, Five Dials, Oxford Poetry, Catapult, The Oxford Review of English Studies, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and many others. She is also a visual artist and has exhibited her work in group and solo shows in New York, Los Angeles, and Italy.

She has been the recipient of numerous international awards for her artwork and writing, including residencies at The Dora Maar House/Brown Foundation, The Bogliasco Foundation, The Siena Art Institute, The Jentel Artist Residency, The Huntington Library, and The Beinecke Library at Yale.