Susan Hayden experienced three sudden losses that shaped her life; her childhood best friend, her father and her husband. How did she shape these losses into the creative voice she crafted over a lifetime? How did they change her? Going forward from loss, what do we take with us and what do we leave behind? Her first published memoir, Now You Are a Missing Person, makes poetry of loss, showing us how to integrate our love into a new creation.

Susan Hayden is a poet, playwright, novelist, and essayist. Her plays have been performed live on KPFK’s Pacifica Performance Showcase and produced at the Met Theatre, Padua Playwrights, The Lost Studio and elsewhere. Her poems and stories have been published in numerous anthologies, including Beat Not Beat from Moon Tide Press, The Black Body from Seven Stories Press, and bestselling Los Angeles In the 1970s/Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine from Rare Bird Books. She was a Finalist in the Inaugural Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award with Penguin Press for her unpublished novel, Cat Stevens Saved My Life. Hayden is the creator and producer of Library Girl, a monthly words and music series now in its 14th year at Ruskin Group Theatre. In 2015, she was presented with the Artist in the Community/Bruria Finkel Award from the Santa Monica Arts Foundation for her significant contributions to the energetic discourse within Santa Monica’s arts community. You can find her at susanhayden.com.