Born May 19, 1955, in Hinsdale, IL; daughter of David W. (a physician) and Lois (a teacher and musician) Swanson; married; children: two sons. Education: St. Olaf College, B.A., 1977; University of Massachusetts Amherst, M.F.A., 1981; Augsburg College, teaching credential, 1988. Memberships: Phi Beta Kappa. Addresses: Home: St. Paul, MN.

FOR CHILDREN

• Getting Used to the Dark: Twenty-six Night Poems, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, DK Ink (New York, NY), 1997.
• Letter to the Lake , illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, DK Ink (New York, NY), 1998.
• The First Thing My Mama Told Me, illustrated by Christine Davenier, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2002.
• The House in the Night, illustrated by Beth Krommes, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2008.
• To Be like the Sun, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2008.

• (Under name Susan M. Swanson) The Large Sky Reaches Down (anthology of student writing), COMPAS (St. Paul, MN), 1986.
• Northern Lights (anthology of student writing), COMPAS (St. Paul, MN), 1986.

Work included in anthology This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort, edited by Georgia Heard, Candlewick Press, 2002. Contributor of poems, essays, and reviews to periodicals, including American Poetry Review, Five Owls, Horn Book, How(ever), Hungry Mind Review, Ironwood, Minnesota Writes: Poetry, New York Times Book Review, Primavera, Riverbank Review, and Ruminator Review. Member of editorial committee, Riverbank Review, 1999-2003.