SUSAN HAHN

Susan Hahn is a bestselling, award-winning, Illinois poet, playwright and novelist. She is also a Guggenheim fellow.

 

She was born Susan Firestone in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Highland Park High School.  After receiving a B.A. and an M.A. in psychology from Northwestern University she began working at the Woodlawn Mental Health Center and became licensed as a group therapist.  Incorporating writing and art into her therapy, she began to write her own work and submitted her first poems to Poetry magazine, where they were accepted.

 

In 1997 she became Editor of TriQuarterly literary magazine and remained there until 2010.  She was also co-founder and co-editor of TriQuarterly Books.

 

During the period 2013-2014 she was the inaugural Writer-in-Residence at the Ernest Hemingway Foundation.

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She is married to the attorney Fred Hahn and is the mother of Rick Hahn, the General Manager of the Chicago White Sox.

 

Her works include:

 

Novels: Losing Beck (2018)

The Six Granddaughters of Cecil Slaughter (2012)

 

Poetry: Corner Office (2024)

The Note She Left (2008)

The Scarlet Ibis (2007)

Self/Pity (2005)

Mother in Summer* (2002)

Holiday* (2001)

Confession (1997)

Melancholia, Etcetera (1995)

Incontinence (1993)

Harriet Rubin's Mother's Wooden Hand (1991)

 

* Named among "Best Books of the Year" by Chicago Tribune 12/8/2002

 

Plays: The Scarlet Ibis (2007, reprised 2008)

Golf (2005)(Jeff Recommended)

 

Her honors and awards include:

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Advisory Council, Chicago Literary Hall of Fame (2022-)

Hemingway Foundation, inaugural Writer-in-Residence (2013-2014) Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry

First Class of Distinguished Alumni, Highland Park High School (2005)

Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Poetry (2003-2004)

Poetry Magazine's George Kent Prize (2000)

The Society of Midland Authors Award for Poetry (1994)

Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards and Fellowships