Susan Kinsolving
The Head's Tale
Miranda Crandell, the Head of Strutthorn Academy, has a brilliant idea to one-up the other elite New England prep schools with their piddling plots of organic veggies for experiential learning: She’ll buy a swamp. Yes, a bog, a quagmire, an oozy acre, where she intends to build a special science center. What she doesn’t account for is Paul Dickersen—her newly hiredfreshwater biologist, who is strikingly handsome (even in cargo pants) and turns out to be an irresistible lover.
Miranda’s days are fraught with student and personnel issues, but soon she becomes her own big problem. The Head of School is supposed to be a steadfast and principled role model for impetuous teenage students. Instead, Miranda becomes crazed with lust, spiraling into a wild and messy journey of self-discovery. Funny, sexy, and irreverent, The Head’s Tale is a delightful tromp through the muck of prep school drama—and a reminder that the process of growing up never truly ends.
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Susan Kinsolving’s fourth book of poems is Peripheral Vision. Her previous books from Grove Press are The White Eyelash and Dailies & Rushes, a finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Award. Among Flowers was published by Clarkson Potter at Random House.
Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She has received critical acclaim from The New York Times, The New Yorker, Poetry, Kirkus Reviews, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and Publishers Weekly.
Kinsolving has taught in The Bennington Writing Seminars, University of Connecticut, Southampton College, Chautauqua Institute, Willard-Cybulski Men’s Prison, California Institute of the Arts, and The Hotchkiss School. As a guest poet and lecturer, she has appeared in many venues, nationally and internationally. Most recently, Susan presented her poems and taught classes at Keystone Academy in Beijing, China.
Marin Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera America Songbook, and the Baroque Choral Guild have performed her libretti in California, New York, Italy, and The Netherlands. Carl Fischer Music and Schott Music publish her libretti.
Susan Kinsolving has received residential poetry fellowships from France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Switzerland, New York, Illinois, and Wyoming.
