"You wonder how long you can keep it up. You begin to feel like you're showing through, like a bathroom window that only lets in grey light, the kind you can't see out of."

                from "Lust", by Susan Minot

Born in Manchester, Massachusetts in 1956, Susan Minot attended Brown University where she majored in creative writing. She went on to attend Columbia University School of the Arts Writing Division, where she earned her B.F.A.

Minot submitted chapters of her first novel to magazines, attracting the interest of The Grand Street Literary Journal. The New Yorker soon followed suit and published the book's last chapter. (This, after previously rejecting her work.) The exposure earned Minot a contract with a publisher.

Minot's first book, Monkeys, was published in 1986 and was soon translated into 12 languages. It went on to win the French Prix Femina Etranga.

Often labeled a minimalist, Minot gained popularity with her 1989 collection Lust and Other Stories. The title story, "Lust", has led the way in the styling of modern American short fiction.

Her third book, Folly, won Minot public acclaim and led some to compare her to Jane Austin, Henry James, and Edith Wharton.

Minot has stepped into a more public spotlight by writing the screenplay for Bernardo Bertolucci's 1996 film STEALING BEAUTY.

By Susan Minot:

• Monkeys (1986)
• Lust and Other Stories (1989)
• Folly
• STEALING BEAUTY (screenplay, 1996)
• Contemporary New England Stories (inclusion)
• Growing Up Female: Stories by Women Writers From the American Mosaic (contributor)
• Rapture
• Evening
• Girls
• Poems 4 a.m.
• Summer by Edith Wharton (Susan Minot introduction)