Suzanne Strempek Shea is the author of six novels and five works of nonfiction, the accolades for which include the New England Book Award, which recognizes a body of work's impact on the region. Suzanne began writing creatively in her spare time while writing for the Springfield Newspapers and The Providence Journal. Her freelance journalism and fiction have appeared in many magazines and newspapers including Yankee, The Bark, Golf World, The Boston Globe, The Irish Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Organic Style, Obit, and ESPN the Magazine.
She is founder and, with Leanna James Blackwell, co-facilitator of Bay Path University's summer Creative Writing Field Seminar in Ireland. As the university's Writer in Residence for 12 years, she founded Bay Path's all-online MFA in Creative Nonfiction and, with Leanna, co-created the university's Narrative Medicine Certificate Program. She also has taught in the MFA programs at Emerson College, the University of South Florida, and the University of Southern Maine. She is co-organizer of Iota Short forms, which offers an annual writing conference in Downeast Maine and an online series of writing workshops and lectures. At the writing table she shares with husband Tommy Shea in their Western Massachusetts home, Suzanne is working on essays for a memoir about her eight childhood years studying (and praying and singing and practicing for processions) at parochial school in her Polish American community.
Please visit the MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing program page to learn about the curriculum, faculty, program options, and more.
