Susan Hughes


Susan Hughes is a Canadian author of children's books. She is a freelance editor and writer. She provides manuscript evaluation and coaching services for writers.

Early life

Susan Hughes went to junior high at Glenview Senior Public School and then high school at Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute. She studied English literature for one year at Queen's University and then completed three more years at the University of Toronto. Hughes got a summer job at a children's publishing company, Crabtree Publishing, where she learned about writing, researching, editing, proof-reading, and working as a team. Hughes worked for a year with Crabtree and then began freelancing as an editor and writer after she graduated, while also working on her own books.

Career

Susan is the award-winning author of 30 children's books, fiction and non-fiction, including board books, picture books, chapter books, middle-grade novels, a non-fiction graphic MG book, and YA. She is delighted that two of her books have won the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-fiction: CASE CLOSED? NINE MYSTERIES UNLOCKED BY MODERN SCIENCE, illustrated by Michael Wandelmeier, which won the award in 2011, and OFF TO CLASS: INCREDIBLE AND UNUSUAL SCHOOLS AROUND THE WORLD which won the award in 2012. Hughes' books have been translated into over seven languages.
She has been an adjudicator for several children's writing competitions, including those sponsored by CANSCAIP and the Writers Union of Canada. She has adjudicated for both the short story and poetry categories for the Hamilton Literary Awards. She had fun as a volunteer competitor in the KidLitQuiz ; was honored to be an adjudicator for the CNIB Library Braille Creative Writing Contest, 2014; and the junior and senior speech contest for the TDSB. She was a mentor for the Read Liberia and Read Sierra Leone projects for CODE. She was one of four Writers-in-Residence for the Toronto District School Board.