Susan Sheehan (née Sachsel; born August 24, 1937) is an Austrian-born American writer.

Biography

Born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria, she won the

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are awarded annually for the "Letters, Drama, and Music" category. The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published du ...

for her book '' Is There No Place on Earth for Me?'' The book details the experiences of a young

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

woman diagnosed with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

. Portions of the book were published in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', for which she has written frequently since 1961 as a staff writer. Her work as a contributing writer has also appeared in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' and ''

Architectural Digest ''Architectural Digest'' (stylized in all caps) is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast ...

''. In 1986, Sheehan published in ''The New Yorker'' "A Missing Plane," a three-part series about the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

's attempt to identify the remains of the victims of a 1944 airplane crash. Her husband was the journalist Neil Sheehan, whom she urged to copy what became known as the

Pentagon Papers The ''Pentagon Papers'', officially titled ''Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force'', is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States in the Vietnam War, United States' political and militar ...

for the ''Times'' with her help, and who also won a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

for General Nonfiction for '' A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam'' in 1989. Sheehan and her husband lived in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Works

Her other works include: *1967 ''Ten Vietnamese'' *1976 ''A welfare mother'' *1978 ''A prison and a prisoner'' *1984 ''Kate Quinton's days'' *1986 ''A missing plane'' *1993 ''Life for Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair'' *2002 ''The Banana Sculptor, the Purple Lady, and the All-Night Swimmer: Hobbies, Collecting, and Other Passionate Pursuits'' (co-written with Howard Means)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheehan, Susan 1937 births Writers from Vienna Hunter College High School alumni Living people Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction winners Wellesley College alumni 20th-century American writers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American women journalists 20th-century American journalists Austrian emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women

Biography

Works

Further reading

References