Susan Telander lives near Minneapolis, where she taught English language classes to adult immigrants from all over the world. Her writing has appeared in Brevity, The Briar Cliff Review, the 20th anniversary edition of The Fourth River and The Rumpus. She attended the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, working with Rajiv Mohabir, Lucy Ives, and Dinty Moore as well as Lit Fest in Denver, working with Emily Rapp Black. She holds a Master of Music degree in classical singing and opera from the University of Minnesota.
“The guide led us a short distance before putting up a hand to halt us. We’d been instructed not to point or express loud amazement, as these human reactions only scare the birds. We needed to let them know we were no threat, though of course, we were. The bullfinch was sitting in a shrub—I don’t know what kind—about ten yards away. No distance at all through binoculars. The bird allowed us to look, admire, memorize, wonder at, celebrate in silence. I fell in love in silence. I was a parent inhaling each detail of my newborn, knowing that I would care for this creature for as long as long is long.”
“Blue",” The Fourth River, Nov 13, 2025
My writing includes published pieces about birdwatching, insomnia, walking home from junior high school, and my job teaching English language classes full of adult immigrants near Minneapolis. Always I write about belonging. My current project, a memoir about living with Complex PTSD, describes how I find belonging among people who are nothing like me but exactly like me, a group of trauma survivors. I write about our strength and beauty, joy and connection.