Susan Twiggs

Susan Schwartz Twiggs was born in Bay City, MI, and has lived in the Midwest most of her life. She has traveled throughout the world and currently spends part of the year in Arizona. As an exchange student in a small village in central France, she became fluent in French at age 16. Eight years later, she backpacked around the world with her husband, John. They have two sons.

As a child, Susan wrote poetry. As an adult, her poetry has been published in multiple magazines and books. In 1997 she began writing for children. She is a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP) as well as SCBWI.

Susan has a Masters in Social Work and co-owned an outpatient mental health clinic. Sue worked as a psychotherapist with children and families. She also taught Kripalu yoga and owned a yoga studio.

Susan continues to live in central Wisconsin and also enjoys summers in the Northwoods watching sunsets. When winter winds blow, she migrates to Scottsdale, Arizona known for cactus, coyotes, and Western culture. She enjoys writing about the natural beings she observes. In her writing for children, she hopes to inspire them to follow their dreams.

Susan offers a newsletter, A Poet’s Potpourri. It takes only 4 minutes to read and is full of photographs, an original poem, and a book review. To subscribe go to suetwiggswrites.com then look in your feed to confirm.

I noticed that you began writing poetry for adults. When and why did you start writing for children?

I’ve been writing poetry since elementary school, St Boniface in Bay City, MI. I’ve been published since 1999 in literary magazines. I pivoted to children in 2016. Why? I love to read children’s picture books. I had many years of piano instruction. Music is very much a part of me. Poetry and picture books have rhythm and musicality. At a reunion of my hometown friends one told me stories about her daughter’s pot bellied pig. They were hilarious. I decided to write a children’s PB. I figured I could write revise and publish in a year. How hard can it be? 

So I joined SCBWI-WI and Picturebook Challenge and checked out mountains of picture books form my local library. As we all know, it’s not that easy. I joined a critique group which helped and wrote more PB manuscripts. 

Second why I write is I want to inspire children to read. I was a psychotherapist for twenty years and I saw some children that had lost hope and felt unloved. I can’t talk with them all but I can learn how to write a book with humor and heart. 

My current project is FINDing HOME and I owe Liza Weimer for setting me on that path. When she published The Assignment I was interested because I am 50% Ashkenazi Jewish but because I was raised Catholic I know very little about my Jewish heritage. Liza acquainted me with the Safe Haven Museum in Oswego , New York which remembers the sole refugee shelter in the United States during WWII. My curiousity was piqued. My adult children lived in NYC at that time so after one of the visits, my husband drove us up there . I visited the Historical Society and Safe Haven Museum. I asked the person who had the contact information for the refugees that were still living and she forwarded my request onto them. I wanted to interview boys between 10-12 years old during their stay. 

Henry Brecher answered my email. He was never interviewed. She was too busy as an adult going on expeditions to survey and measure the size of shrinking avalanches! He was now in his 80’s and ready to share. We met over 20 times during their pandemic over Zoom. He loved to talk and as a former therapist, I loved to listen. But he couldn’t remember how he felt or any dialogue. 

I had in mind to do a picture book. soon I found I had way too much information. So I settled on a middle grade. Since i »m already a poet, a novel in verse was a form I am comfortable with. I also chose a Novel-in-verse form because I want to have the book be accessible to boys and this form has lots of white space. There is a personal reason too. In 5th grade I began to have dreams, dreams that I made happen when I was much older. I hope that my book will inspire readers to travel, to learn other languages and to have compassion for peoples from other cultures, immigrants and refugees. Travel gave me that. I actually wrote a poem for the Central Wi Book Festival titled Why I write for Children. I doubt that I have access to that on my IPad . The poem was selected to be read at the launch of the festival next week. I’ll send it if I can find it. 

What is your inspiration when writing a poem?

 It can take a few weeks to come up with a poem that’s good enough to submit. First, the idea. I’ll scribble possibilities, then the first line. In a poem you want your first and last lines to be the strongest. I’ll start by just getting something down. Then I’ll rework it. Where you end the line is very important in poetry so I’ll experiment with that. I may move lines or stanzas ( groups of lines) around. I’ll cut cliches and look for more delicious nouns and verbs. These may sound familiar to prose writers. The difference is that in a poem everything is compressed, stripped down to the essentials. 

My next step is to send the poem to my poetry critique group. We’ve met for maybe 15 years so we know each other’s work and they are most helpful.

I’ll try all corrections and suggestions and decide. The title is very important. Sometimes a great title appears. Other times I’ll ask for suggestions.

For a given poem any step in the process can be the hardest. I definitely need help with the revision.Having other eyes is crucial for that step. 

I’m also cowriting a picture book with a writer I met who lives in CA. We are using Google Docs which works quite well. We meet regularly on Zoom. We have our characters and now we’re experimenting with different picture book structures. We’re reading recent PBs to give us ideas. Because of the current state of the world I have a strong need to write a funny book. It’s a nice contrast from reading novels about the Holocaust.

I’m also active in the SCBWI-AZ chapter and will attend both the WI and AZ state conferences. I frequently will attend Zooms from Israel and always learn something about being Jewish from them. I belong to the Author’s Guild and they helped me to write a non competition contract.

Here’s another tip. I found my freelance editor, Emma Dryden from WNDB auction. I told her what I was working on and she said, « If you need help, contact me. » These charity auctions can put you in touch with writers, editors, agents you don’t normally have contact with. I also found the two critique groups I have for my MG from a conference at Highlights and the Big Sur workshop in CA. 

How long does it take to create a poem from start to finish, and what is the most difficult part of the process?

 It can take a few weeks to come up with a poem that’s good enough to submit. First, the idea. I’ll scribble possibilities, then the first line. In a poem you want your first and last lines to be the strongest. I’ll start by just getting something down. Then I’ll rework it. Where you end the line is very important in poetry so I’ll experiment with that. I may move lines or stanzas ( groups of lines) around. I’ll cut cliches and look for more delicious nouns and verbs. These may sound familiar to prose writers. The difference is that in a poem everything is compressed, stripped down to the essentials. 

My next step is to send the poem to my poetry critique group. We’ve met for maybe 15 years so we know each other’s work and they are most helpful.

I’ll try all corrections and suggestions and decide. The title is very important. Sometimes a great title appears. Other times I’ll ask for suggestions.

For a given poem any step in the process can be the hardest. I definitely need help with the revision.Having other eyes is crucial for that step. 

What other types of writing do you do?

I’m also cowriting a picture book with a writer I met who lives in CA. We are using Google Docs which works quite well. We meet regularly on Zoom. We have our characters and now we’re experimenting with different picture book structures. We’re reading recent PBs to give us ideas. Because of the current state of the world I have a strong need to write a funny book. It’s a nice contrast from reading novels about the Holocaust.

I’m also active in the SCBWI-AZ chapter and will attend both the WI and AZ state conferences. I frequently will attend Zooms from Israel and always learn something about being Jewish from them. I belong to the Author’s Guild and they helped me to write a non competition contract.

Here’s another tip. I found my freelance editor, Emma Dryden from WNDB auction. I told her what I was working on and she said, « If you need help, contact me. » These charity auctions can put you in touch with writers, editors, agents you don’t normally have contact with. I also found the two critique groups I have for my MG from a conference at Highlights and the Big Sur workshop in CA. 

Besides writing, how else do you spend your time?

 I enjoy travel and spending time with my grandchildren. I have 5, ages 10-15. I belong to an anti racist group that is both a book club and raises money for scholarships for mixed race students. It’s really opened my eyes.I see the world differently from this experience.I’m fortunate to be married to my soulmate, John for 56 years. We live six months in Scottsdale, AZ where we attend lots of live music, art etc. This summer we discovered the Mile of Music in Appleton and loved it. Earlier this year we traveled by ship from Athens to Istanbul. So interesting. I like to grow indoor and outdoor plants. I play ukelele. I’ve just learned many Hawaiian tunes.  

Do you have any advice for writers just beginning to write poetry?

Yes, I do have advice for writers who want to try poetry. First of all, read good poetry, Mary Oliver, the current and past Poet Laureates. Buy a WI Poet’s Calendar. The 2027 books are on sale now. It’s an engagement calendar full of poems by the WI Fellowship of Poets. I have a poem in there. 

My advice about rhyming poems is similar to advice about rhyming picture books. Don’t! There is some awful rhyming poetry out there. Start by observing, noticing, taking notes. Then play with the words, then the lines. Look for delicious words nouns and verbs. If you already write picture books you are a step ahead. Don’t listen to your inner judge that says—you can’t write poetry. Consider joining the WI Fellowship of Poets.Included in the membership are virtual seminars on writing different forms and types of poetry.