SUSAN OSBORN
is the critically acclaimed author of multiple books, essays, and articles. Her latest work, Incest & Power: A Manifesto, examines the ordinary institutional arrangements that keep us from seeing the reality and prevalence of incest.
Susan Osborn’s books have been awarded praise for their discerning intelligence and her willingness to tackle difficult subjects. Her last book of essays, Elizabeth Bowen: New Critical Perspectives, was hailed as a “tour de force;” her last novel, Surviving the Wreck, was touted as “a work of genius.” Her literary criticism, essays, and articles have appeared in over thirty publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Village Voice, Modern Fiction Studies, and Rhetoric Review. Her current work, Incest & Power, analyzes the institutional suppression of incest and explores ways that we can dismantle and replace the anti-feministic and inegalitarian mechanisms of power that keep us from ending incest. For nearly 30 years, she was a member of the English department faculty at Rutgers University where she taught courses on gender and language, literature, and writing. Currently, she serves as Director of The Writing Center of Princeton.
PRAISE FOR OSBORN’S WORK
“WELL-MODERATED [AND] DANGEROUSLY INTELLECTUAL…A TOUR DE FORCE.”
— Ian d’ Alton, The Irish Review
“SPLENDID…OSBORN…ADVANCE[S] A SERIES OF SOPHISTICATED CLAIMS ABOUT MIMESIS…AN IMPRESSIVE CONTRIBUTION.”
— Matthew Brown, Irish Studies Review
“…QUITE SIMPLY, A WORK OF GENIUS. NEVER BEFORE HAVE THE INTRICACIES OF FAMILY BONDS BEEN SO HONESTLY AND SO COMPELLINGLY RENDERED.”
—Louise De Salvo, author of Vertigo and Conceived with Malice
“THIS MASTERFULLY EXECUTED NOVEL. . . . DEALS WITH THE HARROWING CONSEQUENCES OF GROWING UP IN A FAMILY WHERE EVERYONE TURNS TO THE WRONG PERSON FOR AFFECTION
. . . VERY ENGAGING; HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.”
— Library Journal
“A tour de force”
— Ian d’Alton, The Irish Review
“Surviving the Wreck is a chilling novel about the silences in ‘normal’ families, the pain behind those silences, and the need to turn silence into speech.”
—Alicia Ostriker,
former New York State Poet Laureate
