Susan Straight

Susan Straight (born October 19, 1960) is an American writer. She was a National Book Award finalist for the novel Highwire Moon in 2001.

Susan Straight has published six novels, a novel for young readers and a children's book. She has also written essays and articles for numerous national publications, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Nation and Harper's Magazine, and is a frequent contributor to NPR and Salon.com. Her story "Mines," first published in Zoetrope All Story, was included in Best American Short Stories 2003.

Straight lives in Riverside, California. She has three daughters: Gaila (b. 1989), Delphine (b. 1991), and Rosette (b. 1995). Her oldest daughter graduated from Oberlin College. Her second daughter graduated from the University of Southern California. Her youngest daughter is now attending the University of Southern California.

Straight attended John W. North High School in Riverside, California and took classes at Riverside Community College while in high school. She went on to earn a scholarship to the University of Southern California and, in 1984, earned her M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers. She co-founded the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts program at University of California, Riverside, where she is currently a Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing and the director of the graduate program.

• 1990 Milkweed National Fiction Prize for Aquaboogie
• 2001 finalist, National Book Award for Fiction for Highwire Moon
• 2007 Lannan Literary Award (Fiction)
• 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Award for short story "The Golden Gopher".
• 2013 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Robert Kirsch Award.

• Milkweed National Fiction Prize
• "Mystery Writers of America Announces the 2008 Edgar Award Winners". 2008-05-01. Retrieved 2009-05-02. 
• Carolyn Kellogg (April 11, 2014). "Jacket Copy: The winners of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes are ...". LA Times. Retrieved April 14, 2014.