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Susan Straight

Susan Straight's newest novel is "Between Heaven and Here." It is the last in the Rio Seco Trilogy, which began with "A Million Nightingales" and "Take One Candle Light a Room." She has published eight novels, a novel for young readers and a children's book. She has also written essays and articles for numerous national publications, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Nation and Harper's Magazine, and is a frequent contributor to NPR and Salon.com.

Her story "Mines," first published in Zoetrope All Story, was included in Best American Short Stories 2003. She won a Lannan Literary Award in 2007. She won a 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Award for her short story "The Golden Gopher."

She is a Professor at the University of California, Riverside and lives in Riverside, California.


“The Men hunted money and sex. The women were hunted and captured, even the white women.”
Susan Straight
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“The broken spine of the book shows the webbing of binder's string, and my fingers have worn white spots in the cover.”
Susan Straight
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“I have a million nightingales on the branches of my heart singing freedom.”
Susan Straight
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