About Susanna

Susanna Elliffe is a fiction writer based in Ōamaru, New Zealand. Her debut collection, Patron Saints of Roadkill, won the 2025 Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize and was published in 2026.

Susanna is passionate about experimental fiction, strange stories, literary landscapes, and the places where language and the natural world collide.

Her short fiction has been recognised in national and international competitions, including the Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards, the Bridport Prize, the Sargeson Prize, and the Hope Prize.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, a Diploma in Library Science, a Graduate Certificate in TESOL, a Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing, and a Masters of Creative Writing. Her Master's thesis explored defamiliarisation and linguistic deviation through the creation of an experimental novella.

When she's not writing, Susanna can usually be found on stage in a musical, or adding to her collection of degrees.

A woman with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a black dress with red checkered pattern, is smiling and holding a book titled 'Patron Saints of Roadkill & Other Stories' by Susanna Elliffe. She is standing indoors with a window behind her, beside a bouquet of colorful flowers on a table.