Hi there, and welcome to my blog! I’m Sue, a recent graduate of Rhodes College (Memphis, TN), and this is a creative room where I share books I read, thoughts inspired by daily encounters, and just life as I experience it in Hamilton, Canada.
If you want to take a look at the following list:
1. Seoul, South Korea
2. Vancouver, Canada
3. St. Petersburg, Russia
4. Baku, Azerbaijan
5. Hamilton, Canada
6. Toronto, Canada
7. Memphis, U.S.A
These are the seven cities I grew up in—not entirely by choice (most of them were because of my parents’ job), but they still form a unique collection, one I can be proud of. It means I have an unusual repertoire of cultural experience—but also that my childhood was one of constant change, making me develop the unfortunate habit of keeping to myself in a new city, thinking I’d be gone in another couple of years.
Which may or may not be true. But I’m actively trying to combat this habit now as I work, plan, and write, building up this new chapter, the Hamilton chapter no. 2. You see that I associate cities very intimately with eras of my life. I do the same with books. That’s why I love both, because cities and stories allow me to see myself as a layered version of all these bygone chapters rather than just me in the present. It’s a more nuanced view of myself I enjoy having.
Reading-wise, I love Lucy Maud Montgomery, Michael Chabon, Edith Wharton, Fredrik Backman, Margaret Atwood, and Malcolm Gladwell. More recently, Philip Roth, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Han Kang. You might find these names resurfacing often in my book reviews.
I’ll come back if I remember anything else. For now, thank you so much for visiting. Stay as long you want to—I’d offer you coffee if I could.
Love, Sue
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“Our City of the Infinite Darkness,” short fiction published in the Spring 2024 issue of The Southwestern Review, Rhodes College
“Dalhaven’s Daughter,” Honorable Mention in the 2020 Fourth Quarter of the Writers of the Future Contest (Hollywood, CA)
“Girl in a Tree,” Young Poet Award 2019, The Hamilton Association for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art (HAALSA); Second Prize in Age 16 Poetry, The Power of the Pen Writing Contest 2019, Hamilton Public Library and The Hamilton Spectator