Susan Wiggs

Susan Wiggs (born 17 May 1958) is an American novelist who writes historical romance and contemporary women's fiction; library authority data also records Susan Childress as a name she has published under.

A Harvard graduate and former mathematics teacher, Wiggs sold her debut, the Western historical romance Texas Wildflower, to Zebra Books in 1987 and became a full-time writer in 1992. Her early historical series include the Tudor Rose books (1994 to 1996), which open with At the King's Command, the Calhoun Chronicles (1999 to 2005), which begin with The Charm School, and the Great Chicago Fire trilogy (2000 to 2001). From 2000 she moved into single-title women's fiction with The You I Never Knew (2001), and Home Before Dark (2003) was her first hardcover. Her best-known contemporary sequence, the Lakeshore Chronicles, ran from 2006 to 2015 and starts with Summer at Willow Lake; the Bella Vista Chronicles followed from 2013, beginning with The Apple Orchard.

She has won the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award several times: for Lord of the Night (1993), for The Charm School (Favorite Book of the Year, 2000), for The Mistress in the short historical category (2001) and for Lakeside Cottage (2006). She lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest.

For collectors. Her debut, Texas Wildflower, was published by Zebra Books in 1987. The Charm School (1999), the first Calhoun Chronicles novel, and The Mistress (2000) are her award-winning historicals of that period, and Home Before Dark (2003) was her first book in hardcover.