Susanna Moore (born December 9, 1945) is an American writer and teacher. Born in Pennsylvania but raised in Hawaii, Moore worked as a model and script reader in Los Angeles and New York City before beginning her career as a writer. Her first novel,My Old Sweetheart, published in 1982, earned aPEN Hemingway nomination, and won the Prize for First Fiction from theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters. She followed this withThe Whiteness of Bones in 1989, and her third novel,Sleeping Beauties, in 1993. All three of these novels were set in Hawaii and charted dysfunctional family relationships.

Susanna Moore
Moore at the 2007Brooklyn Book Festival
Born	(1945-12-09)December 9, 1945 (age 79) Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Writer actress production designer costume designer
Nationality	American
Education	Punahou School
Spouse	William J. Langelier ​ ​ (m. 1966;div. 1967)​ Richard Sylbert ​ ​ (m. 1972;div. 1978)​
Partner	Michael Laughlin (1980s–1990s)
Children	1
Website
www,randomhouse.com

Moore gained particular critical notice for her fourth novel,In the Cut (1995), which marked a departure from her previous works in both setting and content, concerning a New York City teacher who has a sexual affair with a detective investigating violent murders and dismemberments in her neighborhood. It was adapted into a 2003feature film of the same name by directorJane Campion.

Moore was born December 9, 1945, inBryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.^[1] Shortly after her birth, her family relocated toHawaii, where she spent her formative years, and attended thePunahou School inHonolulu.^[2] She is the oldest of seven children, and was raised by her widowered father, a physician; her mother died in her childhood.^[3]

At age seventeen, Moore returned to the mainland United States to live in Philadelphia with her grandmother.^[4] She later lived in New York City and Los Angeles, working as a model andscript reader.^[1] For a time in the late 1960s, she worked asWarren Beatty's assistant in California.^[5] She published her first book,My Old Sweetheart, in 1982, followed byThe Whiteness of Bones in 1989, andSleeping Beauties in 1993—all three books, set in her home state of Hawaii, dealt with themes of familial dysfunction.^[6] ForMy Old Sweetheart, Moore earned aPEN Hemingway nomination, and won the Prize for First Fiction from theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters.^[1]

Her fourth novel,In the Cut (1995), a thriller novel about a teacher in New York City who begins a sexual relationship with a detective investigating nearby murders, marked a notable departure from Moore's previous works,^[1] and was adapted into afeature film of the same name in 2003 by directorJane Campion.

In 1999, she received the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Moore went on to publish two works in 2003: theBritish India-set novelOne Last Look,^[1] and the non-fictionI Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai‘i, an autobiographical work that explored Moore's upbringing in Hawaii.

In 2006, Moore received a Fellowship in Literature at theAmerican Academy in Berlin;^[7] and in 2006 she received a Fellowship in Literature from theAsian Cultural Council, which entailed a three-month fellowship to research on theMeiji Period in Japan.^[8]

Moore was a visiting lecturer in Creative Writing atYale University in 1988, 1989 and 1994; visiting lecturer at New York Graduate School in 1995; creative writing teacher at theMetropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn between 2004 and 2006;^[9] and lecturer of creative writing atPrinceton University between 2007 and 2009. During May to August 2009, Moore was Writer-in-Residence at Australia'sUniversity of Adelaide. As of a 2012 interview, Moore resided in her home state of Hawaii, though she returns to the East Coast each year to teach courses at Princeton University for the fall semester.^[10]

Moore has a daughter, Lulu, with production designer and art directorRichard Sylbert, and later lived withMichael Laughlin.^[11] Lulu acted as a child, playingPaul Le Mat's half-alien daughter inStrange Invaders.^[11]

• My Old Sweetheart (1982)
• The Whiteness of Bones (1989)
• Sleeping Beauties (1993)
• In the Cut (1995)
• One Last Look (2003)
• The Big Girls (2007)
• The Life of Objects (2012)
• The Lost Wife (2023)

• I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai‘i (2003)
• Paradise of the Pacific: Approaching Hawai‘i (2015)
• Miss Aluminum: A Memoir (2020)

• Official site
• Susanna Moore atIMDb
• Susanna Moore papers at theUniversity of Pennsylvania
• Susanna Moore: Women Behind Bars
• Susanna Moore: The Morning News
• Princeton University: Moore, a graceful novelist, pushes students to be daring