susanna schantz

About

Susanna Schantz's collection SIGN BROKEN, MESSAGE INSIDE is the recipient of the 2026 Juniper Literary Prize for debut collection (University of Massachusetts Press 2027) and her collection Quarter Rest with Fermata is the inaugural recipient of the J. Alfred Prufrock Prize for Poetry (Indirect Books 2027).  Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Common, Abridged Magazine, dadakuku, Porchlight: A Journal of Southern Literature, La Piccioletta Barca, coastlines review: a journal of docupoetics, PHIL LIT, The Sam Hill! Review, Sein und Werden, Syncopation Literary Journal, The Calendula Review: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, The Humanist, Caveat Lector, The Sunlight Press, Deceleration, Jerry Jazz Musician, VAN Magazine, and Wildfire Words Ukraine Anthology 2026, and her poem "Breath Taking" was a runner-up in the After the End Poetry Competition 2025.  She is a former teacher for New York City schools for pregnant, parenting and unhoused teens, and for young men in the justice system, U.S. Department of Education TRIO programs, and the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, with degrees from Yale and Columbia Universities. A trained naturalist, she lives in South Carolina and tries to keep her chronic neurological pain from ruining the day.