Rate My Professor Susanna Childress

Dr. Susanna Childress serves as the DuMez Associate Professor of English at Hope College, where she has been teaching since 2006, except for two years as a Lilly Postdoctoral Fellow at Valparaiso University from 2008 to 2010. She holds a Ph.D. in poetry and women’s writing from Florida State University (2007), an M.A. in poetry from the University of Texas at Austin (2003), and a B.A. in literature and writing from Indiana Wesleyan University (2001). In her career at Hope College, she has served as advisor to Opus, the campus literary magazine, since 2014, and as director of the Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series since 2017. Childress teaches a variety of writing courses, including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, mixed genres, and composition, as well as classes on the intersection of faith and art and the role of art in communities.

Her specializations include literary writing across genres, particularly modern and contemporary poetry, short stories and linked story collections, lyric essays, podcast writing, mixed-genre work, and nature and environmental writing. Research interests encompass women writers, the role of writing in social justice and activism, and contemporary Native American literature. She has edited for literary journal 32 Poems and the Reformed Church of America’s Perspectives, and co-edited Awst Press’s Creative Nonfiction Anniversary Series in 2017. Childress is the author of two prize-winning poetry collections: Jagged with Love (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005; Brittingham Prize in Poetry) and Entering the House of Awe (New Issues Press, 2011; Society of Midland Authors Award for Best Book of Poetry, 2012). Her poem “Careful, I Just Won a Prize at the Fair” appeared in The Best American Poetry 2015. Additional publications include essays such as “Four Before I Begin Again” (Iron Horse Literary Journal, 2019; Trifecta Award) and “How to Name Dead Babies” (The Rumpus, 2019), and short stories like “Nothing to Fear” (Ocean State Review, 2016). Honors also include the Mellon Scholars’ Excellence in Mentoring Award (2017) and Nature in Words Fellowships (2015 fiction, 2016 creative nonfiction).