Susan Mahan worked for the USDA Food & Nutrition Service from 1990 to 2007. She began writing poetry when her husband died in 1997. She is the author of four self-published chapbooks, World View (2009), Missing Mum (2005), In The Wilderness of Grief (2002), and Paris Awaits (2001) . She joined the editorial staff of The South Boston Literary Gazette in 2002.