Headshot of Sue Ellen Thompson across the water from a city skyline.
Sue Ellen Thompson is the author of six books of poetry, including Sea Nettles: New & Selected Poems (2022), They (2014), and The Golden Hour (2005). The Leaving: New & Selected Poems (2001) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Known for her elegant control of form, Thompson’s poetry has been praised for its metaphorical heft and sinuous syntax. Poet B.H. Fairchild praised The Golden Hour for its “elegant, wild, beautifully disciplined quatrains and casually rhymed sonnets.” She is also the editor of The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry (1st edition).
 
Thompson has received numerous awards and honors, including the Samuel French Morse Prize, the Pablo Neruda Prize, the Maryland Author Award, and two Artist Fellowships from the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism. She has taught at Middlebury College, Wesleyan University, Binghamton University, the University of Delaware, and Central Connecticut State University. She is currently an instructor at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and mentors adult poets.