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BIOGRAPHY Susan Parker thinks perhaps God didn’t have his reading glasses handy when he was deciding where on earth to set her down. Without them, he misread the address and sent her to Eureka, California, instead of Eureka, Montana. Born with a cowboy soul, Susan grew up with a love for horses, cowboys, rodeos, and all things Western. She rode stick ponies and played with plastic horses while her friends played with dolls. When her legs were long enough, Susan would sneak off through the woods to rendezvous with a neighbor’s horse. Bareback, she lived out her Western fantasies—until the owner caught her! At the age of 40, she realized her dream of horse ownership, buying a gray Arabian gelding. Susan began writing contemporary poetry and prose in 1995. Her passion for cowboy poetry was sparked in 2003, after attending the Monterey Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival. It burst into full flame shortly thereafter. "I felt I'd come home when I heard cowboy poetry for the first time," Susan says. "I reveled in the stories honoring man and beast, in tales of hardships presented by the lifestyle, of strong family ties—all the while finding humor in the mundane. It’s poetry of our American heritage—poetry that cannot be forgotten. I like the challenge of traditional cowboy poetry with its rhyme and meter, yet I like pushing the creative muse with free verse." Susan taught poetry at a drug and alcohol recovery center. She explains: "We read Shakespeare, Robert Service, Tupac Shakur and wrote pantoums, haiku and cowboy poetry. I used Spurrin’ the Words, a Montana 4-H project manual. The participants came to see the storytelling of poetry, saw the honesty in Wallace McRae and Virginia Bennett, the tenderness in Laurie Wagner Buyer, the unique Indian voice within Henry Real Bird, and the magical music in the words of Paul Zarzyski." Intrigued by pioneering women of the West, Susan has become a student of their writings: "I hear their voices as they pour out loneliness and frustration onto the page. Their courage and determination beg me to share their work, to appreciate the freedoms I enjoy as a result of their perseverance and sacrifice." Susan resides in Benicia, California, with her husband, Cort. When she’s not writing or performing, she enjoys traveling. She also rides and volunteers at the Shingletown Wild Horse Sanctuary, where she gathers inspiration for her Western and cowboy poetry. |
