Susan Perly

{{short description|Canadian journalist and fiction writer}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Susan Perly

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| birth_place =

| occupation = Writer, journalist

| period = 1980s–present

| nationality = Canadian

| notableworks = Love Street, Death Valley

| spouse = Dennis Lee

| awards =

| website =

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Susan Perly is a Canadian journalist and fiction writer, whose novel Death Valley was a longlisted nominee for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize.[http://www.cbc.ca/books/2016/09/scotiabank-giller-longlist-announced.html "Emma Donoghue, Madeleine Thien, David Bergen amongst 12 writers on the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist"]. CBC Books, September 7, 2016. A longtime journalist for CBC Radio, she was a producer for Morningside who became best known for her Letters from Latin America series of reports from war zones in Central and South America in the early 1980s,"Ottawa urged to aid media in Latin states". The Globe and Mail, June 28, 1983. she later created a similar series of reports, Letters from Baghdad, for the network during the 1990 Gulf War.[https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2016/05/15/death-valley-an-absurd-take-on-an-absurd-world.html "Death Valley an absurd take on an absurd world"]. Toronto Star, May 15, 2016. She was also a producer of documentaries for the network's Sunday Morning.

She began publishing short stories in the late 1980s, winning second prize in the short story section of the CBC Literary Awards in 1988."Western writers sweep CBC Radio competition". Toronto Star, January 6, 1988. Her first novel, Love Street, was published in 2001,"Have Mercy, baby". The Globe and Mail, June 23, 2001. and Death Valley followed in 2016.

She is the daughter of Al and Belle Perly, the founders of the Toronto-based map company Perly's Maps."Mapmaker Perly helped people find their way around Toronto". Halifax Daily News, July 15, 1991. She is married to poet Dennis Lee."A poet and an alley cat". National Post, November 23, 2002.