I sort of feel what happened in my poems, I write about hurt, and I wonder maybe—and sadness, especially hurt in my poems—because other people in my family couldn’t. I think that’s why I write or why I have things to write about because I’m feeling [what] other people are not able to express, but also I’m expressing things for them.
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney was born in 1958 in Hagerstown, Maryland. She attended Mount Holyoke College and earned an MFA in poetry and a Ph.D in American Literature from Brown University. Susan lived in North Brookfield for a short time and moved to Worcester to have the opportunity to become an active member of the community. She is a former president of the Worcester County Poetry Association and was on the marketing committee for the Worcester Women’s History Project and the dedicated editor of their newsletter. She teaches American literature and creative writing at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.