Susan Wheeler is the author of four books of poetry: Bag ‘o’ Diamonds (1993), Smokes (1998), Source Codes (2001), and Ledger (2005). She has also recently published her first novel, Record Palace (2005).

Toni Morrison considers Record Palace an “astonishment,” noting that Wheeler’s “deft touch and flawless ear have produced an irresistible work, both fresh and sage.” Wheeler’s most recent book of poetry, Ledger , which won the Iowa Poetry Prize, is receiving similarly laudatory reviews. Harold Bloom credits Wheeler for being “an exuberant, subtle, endlessly inventive original,” adding that Ledger “marks a wonderful advance in her already vital contribution to American poetry.” John Ashbery recommends Ledger as “a treasure map for those willing to understand the journey,” and Marjorie Perloff lauds it as a “dazzling collection.”

Wheeler grew up in Minnesota and New England, and has lived in the New York area for twenty years. Her work has appeared in seven editions of the Scribner anthology Best American Poetry , as well as in The Paris Review , London Review of Books , New American Writing , Talisman , The New Yorker , and many other journals. Her awards include the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America for Bag ‘o’ Diamonds , the Four Way Books Award for Smokes , the Witter Bynner Prize for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She teaches at Princeton University and the New School, and is a former director of the Writers at Rutgers Reading Series.