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About J. Susanne Wilson
J. Susanne Wilson writes award-winning historical fiction inspired by Greek mythology, with a focus on overlooked women, family curses, and myths set in Bronze Age Greece. Her debut novel, The Death and Life of Iphigenia, won 1st Place in the Chanticleer Chaucer Award for Pre-1750 Historical Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2024 Novel London Literary Prize.
I studied at the University of Iowa, where I earned my B.A. in Ancient Civilizations. My focus was on the art, religion, history, and languages of ancient Greece and Rome, which is a very practical degree if you enjoy spending the rest of your life thinking about doomed royal families, divine grudges, and women who deserved better.
Over the years, I’ve continued studying the craft of fiction through the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and the Off Campus Writers’ Workshop in Chicago.
The Death and Life of Iphigenia is a story I’ve wanted to tell since I first encountered Iphigenia in college almost thirty years ago. Her myth is usually treated as the beginning of someone else’s story: a sacrifice that launches a war, a wound carried by other people. I wanted to give her a full life on the page.
I also have one short story, Aerope, available on my website. It belongs to the same mythic world and explores another woman caught inside one of Greek mythology’s most cursed families.
And since you didn’t ask, here are a few more personal details: I grew up in Iowa, with a few years spent living in San Diego, Minneapolis, and Denver. I came back. I live with my husband and our cat, who is 52% lapdog, 39% galloping pony, 18% basketball pro, and 121% cat. I stink at math.
Besides writing, I love to read, garden, hike, knit, and kayak.
