Susan McCarty

Associate Professor
346 O'Dowd Hall
(248) 370-2252

My current project is about the ways in which consumerism and the internet steer our lives. I believe that all life experience is worthy of writing about, no matter how seemingly mundane. For instance, I am writing this description right now because I was told the low word count of this web page was damaging the search-engine optimization of the entire university (!) and because of this, my page was slated to be deleted, making me fundamentally invisible as a professor. This is an example of my current writing sweet spot: thinking about consumer-oriented internet tools and the ways they intersect with and affect my (our) lives, and asking what it all means (spoiler: I don't know yet).

Join me in class as we try to figure it out by thinking deeply about the small parts of our experiences that have previously escaped our attention, and the big stories that change our lives. It's all important and it's all interesting!

Education
Ph.D. University of Utah

Areas of Study
Creative Writing

Selected Publications:

Book
Anatomies (Aforementioned Productions, 2015)

Essays
"Dogs." Juked, 2021.
“A Philosophy of Toys.” Seneca Review, vol. 50, no. 2, 2021
“Quantum Physics for Mothers.” Creative Nonfiction Magazine, issue 74, 2021, 29-33.
“ A Brief History of the Acceptable High School T-Shirts of the Late 1980s.” Literary Hub: The Best of the Literary Internet, Mar. 30, 2020. Rpt. of “Buying a Vuarnet T-Shirt”
“Buying a Vuarnet T-Shirt.” Ecotone, issue 28, 2019, 74-83. University of North Carolina Wilmington
“ Expunged.” Zone 3, vol. 33, no. 1, 2018, 70 - 76. Austin Peay State University. “Times My Pussy Was and Wasn’t Grabbed.” The Rumpus, Dec. 12, 2017
“The Death of a Snake in the First Year of Our Marriage,” South Dakota Review, Volume 52, Issues 3 & 4, Fall 2016.
“Crest.” Nashville Review. Winter 2013.
“Services Pending.” Reprinted in the Utne Reader. May-June 2011.
“Anamnesis.” Tarpaulin Sky. Issue 17. Summer 2011.
“The Escape Artist.” Parcel. Issue 1. 2011
“Ars Romantica.” Hotel Amerika. Issue 1. Fall 2010.
“City/Body: Fragments.” Conjunctions. Issue 55. Fall 2010.
“Services Pending.” The Iowa Review. Issue 2. Fall 2010. (Translated into Spanish by Pablo Ambrogi for The Iowa Review online, Fall 2012.)

Anthologized Work
“Anatomies,” in Not Somewhere Else But Here: A Contemporary Anthology of Women and Place. Sundress Press. 2014.

Short Stories
“Indirect Object.” apt. July 2014.
“The Fat of the Land.” Connu. February 2014.
“Fellowship.” Willow Springs. January 2013.
“Another Zombie Story.” Indiana Review. Issue 34. Summer 2012.
“Shearing Day.” Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment. Issue 14. Fall 2011.
“The Lost One.” West Branch. Issue 68. Spring 2011.
“Kindness.” Barrelhouse. Issue 9. Spring 2011.
“Field Reports.” The Collagist. Issue 17. December 2010.
“City/Body: Fragments.” Conjunctions. Issue 55. Fall 2010.
“The Last Night They Spent Together Before the Separation.” Wigleaf. October 2010.

Podcast Interviews
Delmarva Public Radio Discussion, Delmarva Today. Salisbury, MD. “Sex and Literature.” January 2016
Delmarva Public Radio, Delmarva Today. Salisbury, MD. July 2015.
Write the Book. Burlington, VT. August 2015.