BIOGRAPHY

SuzAnne C. Cole, a retired instructor in English at Houston Community College, is an award-winning poet and writer, and has published more than 270 essays, plays, poems and short stories in at least 170 different publications including commercial and literary magazines, anthologies, newspapers and the poet-favoring Sol Magazine. SuzAnne was a juried poet at the Houston Poetry Fest in 2003 and will be a featured guest poet at the 2004 event.  She has won a Writer's Digest personal poetry contest and a haiku festival in Japan.  She also published To Our Heart's Content: Meditations for Women Turning 50.  SuzAnne and her husband have three grown sons and one grandson. They enjoy hiking vacations, most recently in the Yorkshire Dales in England; future plans include Patagonia.

Favorite Quote:  "But the nature of man is not the nature of silence.  Words are the thunders of the mind."  —Mary Oliver, "The Leaf and the Cloud"

SuzAnne C. Cole is a powerful poet equipped with a master's set of well honed tools.  Her suggestive, strong and original voice shares material shaped with rich language, as her words turn on clear imagery to create honest portrayals.  Beautifully crafted original themes are woven with many layers of meaning.  The reader's imagination is captured with a net of well-woven poetic mechanics such as subtle rhythm and alliteration, enjambment, careful word selection, humor, irony and contrasts.  Exceptional writing with small details pulled from everyday life give readers something concrete; yet while this poet also leaves an impression of something lost, something being searched for, she can also give a sense of closure.  Vivid, witty strings of hyperbole combine with more serious passages.  Unafraid to unpack powerful emotional experiences with which she stamps images on our minds, this poet is a fine, well-practiced craftswoman, who teaches writing with every line.  In "Bridging:  A Woman's Life," SuzAnne deftly handles metaphor in the way a welder handles a welding iron, with care and strength.  She gives a remarkably candid, painfully honest and insightful description of life's cycle, highlighted by a powerful allegory at the poem's stellar ending.  The imagery is startling in its openness, yet at the same time leaves a sense of reticence, of something still being held back.  Word choices are splendid, with a nice development of the “bridge” motif as the poem progresses through time, drawing the reader ever onward, encouraging thought about woman's role in family and society.  In "The Trucker's Story," strong visual content of the narrative holds interest and stirs the imagination through a complex experience of tension, mood and anxiety.  Excellently crafted alliterative language.  Wonderful writing, fine storytelling.  "Eating War" shows SuzAnne's writing strength as she uses a well thought out metaphor to powerfully deliver this poem's stark message.  Unafraid to face repulsive topics, Suzanne shows a fine control over language.  "In My House" poses an interesting question to the reader.  Is this a moment of honesty leaking out of the back yard midden to darken the glittering brass of the public persona of this poet?  Or is this the imagination of the poet hard at work creating yet another seemingly intimate world for her readers to explore?  We may never know, for Suzanne is a strongly forthright yet disturbingly reticent poet who leads her readers in a new direction with each new poem.  What an amazing journey!  Thank you, SuzAnne C. Cole, for the remarkable ride.