Susan Firer

Susan Firer was born and has lived most of her life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has authored three collections of poetry, all on display here: My Life with the Tsar and Other Poems (1979), The Underground Communion Rail (1992), and The Lives of the Saints and Everything (1993). The last-mentioned collection was the 1993 winner of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize. It has been praised as an exploration of “the rituals, feelings, and language of a Catholic childhood” and as a probing into “the mysterious images of [Firer’s] own history–parents, children, music, the seasons, and the curious lives of the saints.” Firer’s poetry has been published in literary magazines such as the Chicago Review, Cream City Review, Iowa Review, Ms., and in anthologies such as Best American Poetry of 1992. Susan Firer received her Master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where she is Assistant Professor in the English Department and where she teaches courses in creative writing and women’s studies.