Susan Lowell

Susan Lowell was born in Mexico and has lived on both sides of the line. Her writing also crosses over--from fiction to nonfiction, from adult books to children’s--with the border country of the American Southwest often integral to the story. Her best-selling picture book, The Three Little Javelinas retells a classic folktale in this rough but beautiful setting. With children of her own, she was honored by the opportunity that followed to teach and delight other young readers.

But now she’s telling javelina and coyote stories meant for grownups. After twenty books and thirty years, her upcoming book, Two Desperados, offers readers a tragicomic journey through the Southwestern border country that parallels her first award-winning short-story collection (for adults), Ganado Red, soon to be back in print.

Deeply rooted in this sun-drenched territory, Lowell is a fourth-generation Arizonan. But she’s also a traveler, a graduate of Stanford and Princeton, and a scholar specializing in the Victorian novel. Her next writing project weaves many longtime interests together in a novel based on English and American family papers and entitled “The Wild West Waltz.”

Her honors include recognition from both Publishers Weekly and the New York Times Book Review, the Milkweed Editions National Fiction Award, being named Arizona author of the year, a Reading Rainbow book, several Young Reader nominations and awards, a OneBook Arizona book, Spur and Storyteller awards from the Western Writers of America, and the 2019 George Garrett Fiction Prize for Two Desperados.

She and her husband divide their time between Tucson and a ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border.