Susan Vizurraga
Adult, Young Adult, Middle Grade and Picture Book Writer
About the Author
Susan Vizurraga is the author of the picture books Our Old House (illustrated by Leslie Baker) and Miss Opal's Auction (illustrated by Mark Graham). She has been a K-8 special education teacher, a middle school English teacher, and a college instructor. She is a volunteer docent, leading school tours at the Georgia Museum of Art.
She lives in a tall white house on a tiny farm in Watkinsville, Georgia, where she grows flowers, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, tomatoes, and muscadines. She usually works on the house or the garden by day, and reads and writes into the night.
Now writing for adult, middle grade and young adult readers, Susan is working on the manuscript THE STAR COLLECTOR, a fictionalized biography in verse about the life of turn-of-the-century astronomer Williamina Fleming, and THE CURE FOR INFINITY, a fictionalized memoir of the year 1969.
THE STAR COLLECTOR
A Novel of the Life of Williamina P. Fleming, The Immigrant Maid Who Became an Astronomer
Inspired by the voice of the young Scottish immigrant who, pregnant and abandoned by her husband, became a maid in the household of the Director of the Harvard College Observatory, THE STAR COLLECTOR describes the rise of Williamina Fleming from maid to astronomical "calculator" and star spectrum reader to discoverer of stars and the first woman to hold office at Harvard University. Struggling to provide for her son and advocating for women in the workplace during the Gilded Age, Fleming's star rose along with the use of photography to investigate and vastly expand the understanding of the universe.
The Cure for Infinity
It’s 1969. America’s on the moon, Richard Nixon’s in the White House, young draftees and Jane's sister are off to war, and more women are seeking careers as feminism enters the second half of its Second Wave. The world is changing fast, and twelve-year-old Jane Mueller is desperately trying to figure how she fits into it in this upper middle grade historical fiction novel in verse.
Our Old House
"Old houses are filled with stories and secrets. But they often need the kindness of a thoughtful person to discover their hidden treasures. After moving into an old Victorian house, a little girl finds many surprises, like a child's name scratched into the kitchen door, a wisteria vine that curls around the front porch, and a cracked glass marble with a swirl of green inside.
Set in the present but drawing on the memory and imagination of the past, this charming story explores the little things that make a house that special place we call home."
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Miss Opal's Auction
"A rusty blue scooter that pulls to the right; a box of old cookie tins; a hand-cranked ice-cream churn . . .
At Miss Opal's auction, a young child sadly watches as her neighbor's belongings--one by one--are sold off, and taken away in the hands of strangers.
This tender story explores a special relationship between a child and an older woman, and the different feelings associated with having to say good-bye. In thoughtful words and beautiful oil paintings, Miss Opal's Auction celebrates friendship and the passing of memories from one generation to the next."
Contact
For rights information on Our Old House or Miss Opal's Auction, please contact Macmillan Publishers.
You can contact Susan using the form at right with your name, email, and message.