The Examen Audio Project
The Author
Susan Sink is an author and poet living on 80 acres of prairie in Central Minnesota. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow, received an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and was awarded residencies at several literary colonies, including Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. Her last collection of poems, Examen, completes a 3-volume series of writing about her life and other subjects, including The Way of All Earth (2003/2023) and H is for Harry (2016). Included in Examen is a powerful series about living with cancer, recorded here as “The Cancer Suite.” A second collection of recordings from the book is called “Of Nature, of Poetry.” Susan Sink’s other books are Habits (2012) and two novels, Officer Down (2012) and Failure to Thrive (2023). All her works are available for sale with best possible terms for the author at Lulu.com. To purchase, search Susan Sink at lulu.com or amazon.com.
Art & Images
Most of the photographs on this site were taken by Susan Sink. Illustrations, that also appear in the book, are by Oliver Smith. Martha Greenwald designed and curates this website. If you have any questions about this site, you can contact Martha via her website.
The Readers
The poems you’ve listened to on Examen Audio are read by Susan’s friends and fellow poets:
Martha Greenwald and Susan Sink were colleagues in Stanford’s Wallace Stegner Program in 1991-1992. For more about Martha and her writing and pandemic activist work, click here.
Tom Montgomery Fate and Susan Sink met when Tom was in residence at the Collegeville Institute in 2019, where Susan was editor of Bearings Online. For more about Tom and his writing, click here.
Yvonne Murphy and Susan Sink were colleagues and next door neighbors as Stegner Fellows from 1991-1993 where they provided each other significant moral support.
Mike Branch met Susan Sink when she lived in Reno, Nevada, in 2000-2002. He and other members of the university’s program in literature and the environment introduced her to the story and beauty of the West. To learn more about Mike, click here.
Eryn Branch was an important friend to Susan as they pursued their own ambitions outside the University during her time in Reno. Eryn is an advocate who works to expose and fight domestic abuse.
Constance Carlson met Susan at Liturgical Press in Collegeville, Minnesota, where they both worked with The Saint John’s Bible program to produce ancillary materials, and sometimes were lucky enough to travel together to speak on the topic. Connie is also a fellow lover of the Minnesota land. For more about Connie, click here.
April Lindner and Susan Sink were lucky enough to be MFA students together at Sarah Lawrence College, at the time a supportive and generative place for women poets. For more on April and her work, click here.
Richard Grinker knew Susan Sink when he was a senior at Grinnell and she was a freshman. They were in a student play together at a heady time of diving into the dreams and ambitions of those who hoped to succeed in the world of ideas. They connected in 2024 through Martha Greenwald, who invited him to join the project.