About

Susie Taylor (she/her) is a queer writer. Born in England, Taylor grew up in Ontario and received a B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Guelph in 2000. She moved to St. John’s, Newfoundland in 2002 and now lives in the ex-urban community of Harbour Grace where she has been since 2008.

Her writing career began in 2015 when she won the 2015 NLCU Fresh Fish award for emerging writers. That manuscript was published in 2019 by Breakwater Books titled Even Weirder Than Before. In 2020, this book was chosen as the book for the CBC NL Radio Morning Show’s pandemic book club.  It was the winner of American Book Fest Best Book Award, for LGBTQ Fiction, and received the Bronze Medal from the IPPY Awards in the LGBT+ Fiction Category.

Since 2015, Taylor’s short stories have appeared in Geist, Prism International, The Fiddlehead, Room Magazine, Riddle Fence and elsewhere.  In 2020, she was the second runner-up for PRISM International’s Jacob Zilber Award for Short Fiction for her story “Vigil”; in 2018, she received an honourable mention in the Leaside Fiction Prize (Riddle Fence) for the short story “Junior Choir”; in 2017, she shortlisted twice, and won second place in Room Magazine’s Fiction Contest for the story, “Dryden, The End of August 1995”; and, in 2016, she was the winner of the Leaside Fiction Prize, for the short story “That Running Girl”.  

In 2019, Taylor was the winner of the Lawrence Jackson Writers’ Award from Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and The Lawrence Jackson Trust Fund. She is a three-time recipient of Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Awards.

She lives with her partner and two cats. When she isn’t writing, she is out running.

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Books

2024 Vigil, Breakwater Books, St. John’s, NL

2019 even weirder than before, Breakwater Books, St. John’s, NL

Publications

2023  “Lemons” short story, Riddle Fence Issue no. 50, St. John’s NL

2021 “Do You Know Who I Am, B’y?”, short story, Geist Issue 118, Vancouver, BC

2020 “Vigil”, short story, PRISM International Issue No. 58.4, Vancouver, BC

2020 “Stevie Dies Twice”, short story, The Fiddlehead Issue No. 283, Fredericton, NB

2019 “After”, short story, RAWSIY II Anthology, Toronto, ON

2019 “Excerpt from even weirder than before”, novel excerpt, Geist Issue 113, Vancouver, BC

2019 “We Smoke our Smokes” short story, Geist Issue 110, Vancouver, BC

2018 “Junior Choir”, short story, Riddle Fence Issue no. 31, St. John’s NL

2018 “Malcontent”, short story, untethered Vol. 4.2, Toronto, ON

2018 “Dryden, The End of August 1995”, short story, Room Magazine Issue No. 41.1, Vancouver BC

2018 “Behind the Dumpsters”, short story, The Impressment Gang, Volume 4.0, Halifax NS

2017 “The Third Day of Spring”, poem, PULP Literature Issue no. 13, Victoria BC

2016 “That Running Girl”, short story, Riddle Fence Issue no. 25, St. John’s NL

2016 “After the Blood Test”, short story, Riddle Fence Issue no. 24, St. John’s NL

2016 “Excerpt from Dispelling the Myths”, novel excerpt, Riddle Fence Issue no. 22, St. John’s NL