Susan Musgrave was born March 12, 1951. Raised on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, she has spent extended periods of time living in Ireland, England, the Queen Charlotte Islands, Panama and Colombia. Married Stephen Reid in 1986. Has two daughters, Charlotte Musgrave (1982) and Sophie Musgrave Reid (1989). Lives near Sidney, British Columbia where she works as a poet, novelist, columnist, reviewer, editor and non-fiction writer.

Susan Musgrave draws on her experiences in public schools, psychiatric institutions, and maximum security penitentiaries across the country. She has published 20 books: she is a poet, novelist, children's writer, essayist, columnist, and reviewer for the Vancouver Sun and Ottawa Citizen. Her home is on Vancouver Island with Stephen Reid, and their two daughters.

She travels widely, both abroad and in Canada, to give speeches, writing workshops and poetry readings. She has held Writer-in-Residence positions at the University of Waterloo (1983-85), the University of Western Ontario (1992) and in 1995 was awarded the Presidential Writer in Residence Fellowship at the University of Toronto (Spring Term.) Since 1991 she has worked online with over a thousand high school students across Canada through the Writers in Electronic Residence Programme. In 1997-98 she was Chair of the Writers' Union of Canada.

Books include (for children) Dreams Are More Real Than Bathtubs, illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay (Orca, Fall 1998); Forcing the Narcissus (poetry; McClelland & Stewart, 1994); Musgrave Landing: Musings on the Writing Life (personal essays; Stoddart; 1994); Things That Keep and Do Not Change(poetry; McClelland & Stewart, 1999) and The Selected Poems of Susan Musgrave(Beach Holme, 2000). Anthology publications include The Norton Introduction to Literature, Regular, 6th Edition, 1994; Fever: Sensual Stories by Women Writers, edited by Michelle Slung (Harcourt Brace, 1994); Without a Guide: Contemporary Women's Travel Adventure, edited by Katherine Govier (Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1994); Best American Erotica, 1995 edited by Susie Bright (Simon & Schuster); Best American Poetry, 1995, edited by David Lehman (Scribner/ Simon & Schuster).

Awards

Four times short-listed for the Governor General's Award she is the recipient of half a dozen Air Canada Frequent Flyer Awards (for points accumulated flying to receptions for prizes for which she has been short-listed). She has won a National Magazine Award (silver) 1981, the R.P. Adams Memorial Prize for Short Fiction (USA), the b.p. nichol Poetry Chapbook Award, 1991, and the People's Choice Poetry Award, Prairie Schooner Magazine, 1994.

She received the Tilden (CBC/Saturday Night) Canadian Literary Award for Poetry, 1996. Also in 1996 she received the Vicky Metcalf Short Story Editor's Award.

Susan Musgrave's works copyright © to the author.