Susan Jo Russell is a poet and educator from Somerville, Massachusetts.  Her poems have appeared in Amoskeag, Borderlands: Texas Review, Chautauqua, Comstock Review, Passager, Peregrine, Slant, and elsewhere.  Her long poem, "Southern Girl, Chicago, 1943-1946," based in part on letters written by her father to her mother during World War II, won the 2009 Chautauqua poetry prize.  She is a reviewer for the Fiddler Crab Review.

Her chapbook, We Are Not Entirely Abandoned, is published by Finishing Line Press.

The cover photo is of Susan Jo's grandmother's night-blooming cereus in 1916.  This flower, which blooms for a single night, is referred to in the poem "Southern Girl, Chicago, 1943-1946."  Susan Jo's mother can be seen in the middle left (long dark hair, plaid dress).