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Susan Hayden

Goodreads Author

Born

in Los Angeles , The United States

January 02

Website

https://www.susanhayden.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Poetry, Arts & Photography

Influences

Grace Paley, Joni Mitchell, Tennessee Williams, Muriel Rukeyser, Sharo ...more

Member Since

August 2007

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Susan Hayden is a multigenre writer. She is the author of Now You Are a Missing Person, a memoir in poems, stories, essays and fragments, published by Moon Tide Press. It was a Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Book of 2024, after having received the Kirkus Star. It was selected for the Best of 2023: Fiction & Literature from Los Angeles Public Library, chosen by library staff.

Now You Are a Missing Person was an AURAIST PICK for Best Written Non-Fiction Books of 2024. It also made the Shortlist for the Memoir Prize for Books, was an Eric Hoffer Award Finalist, a National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist, a Readers’ Choice Book Award Finalist, a Distinguished Favorite in the Cross Genre category by the 2025 NYC Big Book Award and a Runner-up in the Susan Hayden is a multigenre writer. She is the author of Now You Are a Missing Person, a memoir in poems, stories, essays and fragments, published by Moon Tide Press. It was a Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Book of 2024, after having received the Kirkus Star. It was selected for the Best of 2023: Fiction & Literature from Los Angeles Public Library, chosen by library staff.

Now You Are a Missing Person was an AURAIST PICK for Best Written Non-Fiction Books of 2024. It also made the Shortlist for the Memoir Prize for Books, was an Eric Hoffer Award Finalist, a National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist, a Readers’ Choice Book Award Finalist, a Distinguished Favorite in the Cross Genre category by the 2025 NYC Big Book Award and a Runner-up in the Zibby Awards 2023 for Best Coming of Middle/Old Age book, awarded by Zibby Owens. And it was a 2024 Finalist in the IAN Book of the Year Awards in 3 categories: Grief/Hardship, Poetry, and Women’s Non-Fiction. Additionally, it was the Winner in the Poetry category and Winner in the Wild Card category from Southern California Book Festival.

Hayden has been published in the anthologies Catching Fire (Three Rooms Press, 2025), Look What I Did About Your Silence (El Martillo Press, 2025); From Venice to Venice (El Martillo Press, 2024); Beat Not Beat (Moon Tide Press); Los Angeles In the 1970s: Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine (Rare Bird Books); The Black Body (Seven Stories Press), I Might Be The Person You Are Talking To (Padua Playwrights Press) and elsewhere.

She is the creator, curator and producer of Library Girl, a monthly literary series. Originating in 2009 at Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, CA, the show celebrates the written word and features some of the boldest voices in Los Angeles: poets, essayists, novelists, playwrights and musicians. In 2015, she received the Bruria Finkel/Artist in the Community Volunteerism Award from the Santa Monica Arts Foundation, for her “significant contributions to the energetic discourse within Santa Monica’s arts community.”

Hayden is also a playwright. Her work has been produced at The MET Theatre, Padua Playwrights’ Festival, Mark Taper Forum’s Other Voices, The Lost Studio, South Coast Repertory's Nexus Project, Ensemble Studio Theatre's WinterFest, The California Studies Council, and Café Plays at the Ruskin.

She is the proud mother of singer-songwriter Mason Summit, who performs with Irene Greene in the Americana duo, The Prickly Pair. She lives in Santa Monica with her husband, music journalist Steve Hochman.
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Combine Editions
Susan Hayden’s books

Average rating: 4.05 · 162 ratings · 45 reviews · 5 distinct works • Similar authors

	Los Angeles in the 1970s: Weird Scenes inside the Gold Mine by David Kukoff (Editor), Jeremy Rosenberg (Contributor), John Densmore (Contributor) 3.68 avg rating — 133 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Now You Are a Missing Person: A Memoir in Poems, Stories, & Fragments 4.84 avg rating — 31 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Black Body by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah (Editor), Susan Hayden (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 3.75 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 2009 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Beat Not Beat by Rich Ferguson ( Editor), Susan Hayden (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), S.A. Griffin (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.90 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2022 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Enchanted Bath: Bath Rituals and Recipes 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Susan Hayden…

Susan is Currently Reading

Susan Hayden is currently reading

Thirteen Ways of Looking for a Poem: A Guide to Writing Poetry

by Wendy Bishop

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read in August 2007

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Mar 14, 2010 07:52PM

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Off to the Side: A Memoir

by Jim Harrison

bookshelves: currently-reading

read in August 2007

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Aug 01, 2007 05:18PM

Susan’s Quotes

“静けさや
岩に染み入る
蝉の声

The deep Stillness
Seeping into the rocks
The voice of the Cicadas”
― Matsuo Bashō

tags: basho, haiku, haiku-quotes, matsuo, matsuo-basho

10 likes

“Tucked inside the moments of this great sadness - this feeling of being punctured, scrambling and stricken - were also moments of the brightest, most swollen and logic shattering happiness I've ever experienced. One moment would be a wall of happiness so tall it could not be scaled; the next felt like falling into a pit of sadness that had no bottom. I realized you could not have one without the other, that this great capacity to love and be happy can be experienced only with this great risk of having happiness taken from you - to tremble, always, on the edge of loss.”
― Emily Rapp, The Still Point of the Turning World

tags: death, happiness, loss

7 likes

“Within minutes, it was as if we were all sewn together, a crazy quilt of inconsolables. My heart was excavated. Everyone's story was the worst story.”
― Susan Hayden

0 likes

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