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Biography:

Susan Hawthorne was born in Wagga Wagga, NSW and grew up on two farms in the Riverina. She has worked in publishing and literature for over twenty years, but also works in universities and a range of community and activist groups. She is an aerialist, poet, novelist and political commentator.

 

As an aerialist she writes poetic scripts and does solo performances using tissue and trapeze. She has performed in Australia, New Zealand, USA and India. She is also a member of Melbourne’s Women’s Circus and was a founding member of the Performing Older Women’s Circus (POW). She has written about circus in her collection Bird (1999), and several of the works included in The Butterfly Effect (2005) are performance texts.

 

Susan has a PhD in Political Science and Women’s Studies from the University of Melbourne. Among her other qualifications are a BA (Hons) in Philosophy (La Trobe University) and MA (Prelim.) in Ancient Greek Language (University of Melbourne). She is currently studying Sanskrit. Her academic and political commentary includes work on globalization, land, water and biopiracy, on war, violence and torture, on intellectual property rights and cyberfeminism, as well as cultural commentary on lesbian literature and culture. Her non-fiction books include Wild Politics: Feminism, globalization and bio/diversity (2002), September 11, 2001: Feminist Perspectives (co-edited with Bronwyn Winter, 2002), CyberFeminism: Connectivity, Critique and Creativity (co-edited with Renate Klein, 1999), Australia for Women: Travel and Culture (co-edited with Renate Klein, 1994) and The Spinifex Quiz Book (1993). 

She works as a Research Associate at Victoria University, and has supervised PhDs in creative writing at VU for a decade, and more recently in Political Science at University of Melbourne.

 

She is also a novelist, The Falling Woman (1992/2003), and has (co-)edited a number of anthologies of fiction, drama and poetry. Anthologies include Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love and other lesbian writings (co-edited with Cathie Dunsford and Susan Sayer, 1997), Angels of Power and other reproductive creations (co-edited with Renate Klein, 1991), The Exploding Frangipani (co-edited with Cathie Dunsford, 1990), Moments of Desire (co-edited with Jenny Pausacker, 1989) and Difference (1985).

 

Along with Jan Fook and Renate Klein she has co-edited Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women’s Lives (2003) and HorseDreams: The Meaning of Horses in Women’s Lives (2004).

 

She has given talks and readings in numerous countries including South Africa, Korea, India, Bangladesh, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, and China. She has won awards for her poetry, fiction and non-fiction.

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Website: http://susanscowblog.blogspot.com/; http://susanspoliticalblog.blogspot.com/

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Awards and Translations:

Publishing
1996 Winner, Hall of Fame Award, The Rainbow Awards for contribution to the Gay and Lesbian Community.
1991 Pandora New Venture Award, Women in Publishing International for Spinifex Press.
1989 Florence James Pandora Award for Outstanding Contribution to Women’s Publishing.
1988 Barbara Ramsden Award for editing (shared with Jackie Yowell), for work on Stories from the Warm Zone by Jessica Anderson.

Non-fiction
2002 Wild Politics, Best of the Year in Australian Book Review
1994 The Spinifex Quiz Book. Listed as one the best Secondary Educational Texts in the Australian Educational Awards.

Fiction
1992 The Falling Woman, a novel, Top Twenty Title in New Zealand Listener Women’s Book Festival.
The Falling Woman, Listed as one of the Best Books of 1992 in Australian.

Translations:
The Spinifex Quiz Book: Spanish and German
Australia for Women: Travel and Culture, German

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Books published by, or available from, Spinifex:

	Bird
	Butterfly Effect, The
	Earth's Breath
	Falling Woman, The
	Spinifex Quiz Book, The
	Wild Politics: Feminism, Globalisation and Bio/diversity