Suzanne Scanlon’s memoir  Committed (Vintage / Anchor Books), is a startling and brilliant account of reading and mental illness. Called “lyrical and illuminating” by Natasha Trethewy, the book received attention and acclaim as she told her extraordinary story of her 3-year institutionalization through the lens of the books she loved. Now available for speaking engagements, Scanlon is a compelling speaker on the perennial and wide-ranging intersections between women’s lives, mental health and art. 

 

Scanlon’s previous books include Promising Young Women (Dorothy, 2012) and Her 37th Year, An Index (Noemi, 2015). Her 37th Year, An Index was featured in Martine Syms’ short film, shown at The Museum of Modern Art, and a Swedish translation was published in 2016. A chapter of Promising Young Women was featured as part of a group exhibition titled Institutional Garbage at Sector 2337, presented by the Green Lantern Press and the Hyde Park Art Center. A fiction, “The Rape Essay,” was published in Ireland, as part of A Kind of Compass, Stories on Distance (Tramp Press, 2015); “Skepticism and Affirmation” was published in Rockhaven: A History of Interiors (Which Witch) a book of photography and essays documenting the abandoned Rockhaven Sanitarium in La Crescenta, California.

 

Scanlon’s fiction and nonfiction has appeared in The Believer, The Guardian, Granta, BOMB, Fence, LitHub, The Iowa Review, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, and elsewhere. She’s received fellowships from The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ox-Bow Artists Residency, and the Ragdale Foundation.

 

Scanlon has an MFA+MA from Northwestern University’s Litowitz Creative Writing program, and a BA from Barnard College. . Currently she teaches at the School of Art Institute Chicago and she is an Artist-in-Residence at Northwestern University.