 Publications
Susan’s newest book for Norton is a guide for parents, Rethinking School: How to Take Charge of Your Child’s Education (2018). Her previous books for Norton included updated editions of two perennial best sellers, The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (fourth ed., 2016) and The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had (rev. ed., 2015); The Story of Western Science: From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory (previously titled The Story of Science) (also 2015): and the History of the World series, a narrative world history series that so far encompasses The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome (2007), The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade (2010), and The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople (2013).
With Princeton University Press, she has published the academic title The Art of the Public Grovel: Sexual Sin and Confession in America (2008).
Susan’s curricula materials, published by Well-Trained Mind Press, include the four-year series Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind: A Complete Course for Young Writers, Aspiring Rhetoricians, and Anyone Else Who Needs to Understand How English Works; the four-volume elementary composition series Writing With Ease; the three-volume pre-rhetoric composition program Writing With Skill; and the four-volume world history series The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child.
Education
Susan’s parents taught her at home for most of elementary and middle school, and all of high school; she entered college at seventeen as a Presidential Scholar and National Merit finalist, and finished her B.A. in five semesters with a major in English, a minor in Greek and a summer spent studying twentieth century theology as a Visiting Student at Oxford. She went on to earn a Master of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, where she added Hebrew and Aramaic to her languages. In 1994, she also completed the M.A. in English language and literature at the College of William and Mary in Virginia; her concentrations were in translation theory, seventeenth-century devotional poetry, and Psalm paraphrase in the Tudor period. She received her Ph.D. in American Studies from William and Mary in 2007, with a concentration in the history of American religion. From 1994 until 2010, Susan Susan taught writing and American literature at William & Mary.
Personal
Susan was born in 1968, grew up in Virginia, and was educated at home by pioneering parents, back when home education was still unheard of. She learned Latin at age ten, worked as a professional musician while still in high school, and wrote three (unpublished!) novels before she turned sixteen. In high school and college, she has toured with a travelling drama group; galloped racehorses at a Virginia racetrack for spending money; taught horseback riding; worked in ghostwriting and newspaper ad sales; learned enough Korean to teach a Korean four-year-old Sunday school; and served as librarian and reading tutor for the Rita Welsh Adult Literacy Center in Williamsburg.
Susan spends most of her time writing in her restored chicken shed and running her four companies (Well-Trained Mind Press, Well-Trained Mind Academy, The Bed & Breakfast at Peace Hill, and Books & Sheep, Inc.). She lectures regularly on writing, education and history, and serves on the board of three wonderful enterprises—The Clemente Course in the Humanities, Comment Magazine, and Education & Culture: A Critical Review.
For fun, Susan trains draft horses, tends livestock, reads, and cooks. She is learning how to ice skate and enjoys yoga. She has been married to Peter since 1990; they have three sons and a daughter, a daughter-in-law and one granddaughter.