Susan Coronel
Current City, State, Country
Birth City, State, Country
Biography
Susan Michele Coronel was born and raised in New York City. She graduated Indiana University-Bloomington with a BA in English in 1991. At IU-Bloomington she discovered her love of poetry under the guidance of Yusef Komunyakaa, who was a professor there at the time. She worked as an editorial intern at the Indiana Review and regularly participated in a poetry reading series led by Kenneth May, who has run the Liquid Arts Network in Busan, South Korea for the past 17 years. From 1992-1994 she worked as a staff writer for publications including Long Island Jewish World in Great Neck, New York and The North Adams Transcript in North Adams, Massachusetts. In 1995 she received a post-B.A. certificate in elementary education from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and from there taught upper elementary education at public schools in Queens, New York. In 2001 she received a M.S. Ed in Applied Linguistics (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), and has taught ESL to adults and children. In 2004 she was awarded National Board Certification. In 2007 she left teaching to start her own daycare/preschool, which she has successfully run for the past fourteen years. Eight years ago, Susan returned to writing and studying poetry, and in 2020, began publishing her work in literary journals. Two of her poems received Pushcart nominations, and her work has appeared in numerous publications including Spillway 29, Plainsongs, Thimble, North Dakota Quarterly, TAB Journal, Inflectionist Review, Gyroscope Review, and One Art. In 2021 one of her poems was first runner-up for the Beacon Street Poetry Prize, and another was a finalist in the Millennium Writing Awards. In 2021 one of her poems was shortlisted for the Sappho Prize. Her first full-length poetry manuscript was a finalist in Harbor Editions’ 2021 Laureate Prize. Susan is a member of the Facebook group virtual poetry group Ekphrastic Writers and is participating in a year-long poetry publishing class at the Community Literature Initiative. She is currently studying Yiddish, and hopes to become fluent enough to write and translate poetry, and to communicate in the language effectively. She currently resides in Ridgewood, Queens, and has three children ages 11, 17 and 18. She volunteers with the Riverside Language Program in New York City to practice conversational English with immigrants, and enjoys yoga, traveling, reading, hiking and attending museums and cultural activities in New York City.
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
My Jewish identity finds its way into my creative work in overt and subtle ways. Jewish culture, issues, ideas and traditions are present in a number of my poems.
Author Site
Links to Sample Works
Education
Indiana University-Bloomington, B.A. in English, 1991
Massachusetts State College of Liberal Arts, Post-B.A. Certificate in Elementary Education, 1995
City University of New York, M.S. Ed. in Applied Linguistics/Second Language Acquisition, 2001
Touro College, Post-Masters Certificate in Early Childhood Special Education, 2010