Susan Firer is a Milwaukee poet. She was born on October 14, 1948 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In 1974, she married fellow poet and writer James Hazard. She attended University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, earning her BA in General Liberal Arts in 1973 and her MA in
English/Creative Writing in 1982. From 2008 to 2010, she served as Milwaukee's Poet
Laureate. Firer is the author of six books of poetry, and her work has been featured in
multiple anthologies, literary magazines, and journals. She received numerous awards,
including the Cleveland Poetry Prize and the Backwaters Prize, and is a University of
Wisconsin Distinguished Alumnus. In addition to writing poetry, Firer worked as an adjunct
professor of English at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, teaching creative writing and
literature classes. She was the founder and advisor of Furrow, the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee's undergraduate literary magazine.
