Born in Boston and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, Susan Rich holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts, an EdM from Harvard University, and an MFA from the University of Oregon. Her debut, The Cartographer's Tongue: Poems of the World (White Pine Press, 2000), won the PEN USA Award for Poetry. Later collections include The Alchemist's Kitchen (White Pine, 2010), Cloud Pharmacy (White Pine, 2014), and Blue Atlas (Red Hen Press, 2024), a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She has held a Fulbright Fellowship and co-founded the retreat Poets on the Coast.