Susan Scott is a writer and editor working at the intersection of story, spirit, self, and culture. Her latest book, Body & Soul, centres diverse women’s voices and unorthodox approaches to the sacred. Stories in My Neighbour’s Faith introduces narratives from world religions across Canada. Her chapbook, Temple in a Teapot, launched on a 1,000-mile tour of the American West, plays on a sublimely domestic myth in American religious history.
Collaborations with fellow artists, activists, and scholars have led to rich associations, and to teaching in communities and classrooms, from inner-city churches in Boulder, Colorado, to St. Jerome’s University and Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. She has guest lectured in writing programs and at the Yale Institute for Sacred Music (ISM), and, since 2020, has offered monthly webinars that explore the ancient art of spiritual memoir.
Susan’s community-building springs from a rich foundation in the liberal arts. Doctoral work in anthropology, fine arts, and religious studies complements an MA in religion and culture, training in spiritual direction, and a graduate certificate in creative writing from the Humber School for Writers.
Susan founded the award-winning environmental humanities initiative, the Walkerton Water Stories Project, and its offspring, the Water Stories Project, and is a founding member of Native-Immigrant and its culture work in Montreal and Chile. As The New Quarterly’s lead nonfiction editor (2012-9), she led writing retreats (2018-9), and served as associate creative director of the Wild Writers Literary Festival (2013-9). In 2020 she became a contributing editor, and director of the newly minted Wild Writers Mentorship Program.
With settler roots in the Great Lakes basin, Susan is deeply grateful to be able to make her home on the Haldimand Tract, in the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee, Anishnaabe, and Neutral peoples. She now serves her community as co-chair of the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund.
You can find Susan writing in cafes, or cycling on her Simcoe, wicker basket brimming with veggies and baguettes.
Watch for news of her next book in 2022.