Susan Terence

Poet

San Francisco, CA
California US
Twitter/X: 

Author's Bio

Susan Terence has won several awards for her writing, including a DeWar’s Young Writer’s Recognition Award for the State of California, the Audre Lord award for Fiction, Highsmith award for playwriting, San Francisco District 11 awards, and Ann Fields and Browning awards for dramatic narrative poetry. Her poetry has been published in Southern Poetry Review, Nebraska Review, Negative Capability, Lake Effect, Americas Review, San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco Chronicle, Halftones to Jubilee, St. Petersburg Review, and several other magazines and anthologies.
She received her B.A. in English Education with additional studies in Spanish and Creative Arts from the University of Arizona in Tucson; and her M.A. in Inter-Disciplinary Arts and M.F.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She has performed her work in bookstores, libraries, colleges, and theaters around the country, presenting oral theatrical interpretations of her poetry, dramatic monologues, and fiction. She has served as a writer and performing artist in residence through the California,  Montana, North Carolina, and Fulton County (Atlanta) Georgia Arts Councils and through Arts in Arizona Towns, on the Tohono O’odham Reservation outside Tucson, through Writer’s Voice, and throughout Northern California via California Poets in the Schools (CPITS.) She has served as San Francisco Area Coordinator of CPITS for over 30 years. She has written and been awarded over 50 grants (including grants from the San Francisco Giants) to lead poetry and performing arts workshops in San Francisco schools.
She’s been named Creative Writing Teacher of the year by the SF Unified School District.
She has also been a Poet in Residence at the De Young and Legion of Honor Museums in San Francisco, and led poetry, performance, and art workshops at the Exploratorium and poetry at the California Academy of Sciences. She has completed a novel set in her hometown of Tucson, Arizona. Her poetry, fiction, plays and monologues deal primarily with individuals in disenfranchised communities.

 

Publications & Prizes

Anthologies:
District 11, San Francisco (San Francisco Public Library, 2012)
,
California Poets in the Schools Statewide anthology (California Poets in the Schools, 2000)
Journals:
Americas Review
,
Half Tones to Jubilee
, ,
Nebraska Review
,
Negative Capability
,
San Francisco Bay Guardian
,
San Francisco Chronicle
, ,
The St. Petersburg Review
Prizes won: 

 

2012 & 2014   Winner, Friends of SF Public Library, District 11 poetry contest

2002                 Winner, Audre Lord Award for Fiction

2002                 Winner, Stonewall Alumni Scholarship for Fiction

2003                 Third place winner, J.T. Highsmith Playwriting Award

2001                  Honorable Mention, Ann Fields Poetry Prize

1990                  One of three “DeWar’s Young Artists” Recognition Award Recipients for

  Literature in California.                                                                 

1989                  San Francisco Bay Guardian Poetry Contest, 2nd place winner; (finalist,

                          Bay Guardian contest, l991.)

1990, 1991,       Five year winner, Browning Society Poetry Contest for Dramatic

2002-2004         Narrative Poetry

2014                  Semi-finalist in poetry and fiction categories, Tucson Book Festival

2002                 Winner, Stonewall Alumni Scholarship for Fiction

 

2004 & 2005        San Francisco Unified School District Literary Arts Teacher of the Year

                              award through the SFUSD Youth Arts Festival—2004; Royal Bank of

                              Canada/Dain Rauscher Literary Arts Teacher of the Year Award and grant

                              through the San Francisco Unified School District—2005.

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
Jewish, White
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Fluent in: 
English, Spanish
Born in: 
Tucson, AZ
Arizona
Raised in: 
Tucson & San Francisco, AZ
Arizona
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Apr 10, 2020