Susan Hawthorne

Susan is a poet, novelist, publisher and Sanskritist. Her academic work encompasses literature and creative writing including processes of creative and associative thinking, hypertext, oral literature and translation. She has lectured widely in Publishing Studies and worked with numerous post-graduate students in the last 20 years producing novels. collections of short stories, collections of poetry or theses on publishing. She has worked in the publishing and associated industries for more than 30 years and worked with writers such as Thea Astley, Jessica Anderson, Marion Halligan, Ruby Ginibi Langford and Andrea Goldsmith when she was at Penguin Books (1987-1991). In 1991, she co-founded with Renate Klein the independent feminist press, Spinifex which has published more than 200 books by writers from around the world including Dale Spender, Nawal el Saadawi, Vandana Shiva, Unity Dow, Finola Moorhead, Merlinda Bobis and many others In 2006, Spinifex Press began creating eBooks of their titles, the first small independent in Australia to do so. She has been an ASA mentor in 2011. Her writing spans poetry, fiction, academic non-fiction, reviews, political commentary and translations. She has presented her work at conferences in Australia, USA, South Africa, India, Fiji, Korea, Uganda, New Zealand and Canada. She is the English Language Co-ordinator of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers based in Paris.