Susan Hayden is a multigenre writer. Her debut book, Now You Are a Missing Person, a hybrid memoir in poems, stories and fragments, was published in May 2023 by Moon Tide Press. It received the Kirkus Star from Kirkus Reviews and was included in the Best of 2023: Fiction & Literature from Los Angeles Public Library, as selected by their staff. Now You Are a Missing Person was a Finalist in the Eric Hoffer Award 2024, a Finalist in the 18th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards and a Finalist in The Zibby Awards 2023 for the Best Coming of Middle/Old age book. It was the Winner in Poetry from Southern Calfornia Book Festival and the Winner in their Wild Card category. Most recently, Now You Are a Missing Person made the Shortlist for The Memoir Prize for Books.

Hayden is published in the anthologies From Venice to Venice: Poets of California and Italy (El Martillo Press, 2024); Beat Not Beat (Moon Tide Press); Los Angeles In the 1970s: Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine (Rare Bird Books); The Black Body (Seven Stories Press), I Might Be The Person You Are Talking To (Padua Playwrights Press) and elsewhere.

She is the Creator, Curator and Producer of Library Girl at Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, CA, since 2009. The monthly event celebrates the written word and features poets, essayists, novelists, playwrights and singer-songwriters. The show was named Best Local Literary Series from The Argonaut's Best of the Westside. In 2015, she received the Bruria Finkel/Artist in the Community Volunteerism Award from the Santa Monica Arts Foundation.

Hayden is also a playwright. Her work has been produced at The MET Theatre, The Lost Studio, Padua Playwrights Workshop/Festival, Mark Taper Forum's Other Voices Program, South Coast Repertory's Nexus Project, EST's WinterFest, The California Studies Council, Cafe Plays and the Ruskin.

She is the proud mother of singer-songwriter Mason Summit, one half of the music duo, The Prickly Pair. She lives in Santa Monica with her husband, music journalist Steve Hochman.