Susan Signe Morrison

I'm so grateful to the Cordts Art Foundation and Franziska Seifert and Tim Cordts for their incredible support. Living amid the beauty of Schwanenwerder in Berlin, I was able to work hard and fruitfully, yet all the while enjoy old friends, meet new acquaintances, see museums and performances, and delight in the wonders of the lush environment here.

Here is what the Foundation which supported me the summer of 2024 at beautiful Schwanenwerder writes about me: "In 1997 our scholarship holder Susan Morrison, a professor from Texas, learned that there was a Stasi file on her - from her time as an American teacher in the GDR. How do you deal with that? Morrison is writing a book, and in Schwanenwerder she found the perfect place to reflect on 'What is past is present'."

In my talks, I presented on two experiences from my German Democratic Republic past and my Stasi-file: once when I was held at the West-East Berlin border in January 1989 and about the notorious Wall Newspaper incident from 1985 in Rostock, East Germany. The discussions were lively, fun, and extremely enthusiastic. I'm so grateful to the Foundation.

I was delighted to host students and professors from the Art and Design University in Halle, Germany. They are studying the rich and complicated history of the area around Wannsee in Berlin. Coming to talk to me about my project (my experiences in East Germany and my Stasi file) fit in perfectly.

I'm delighted to announce that a chapter from my book about my experiences teaching in East Germany in the 1980s has been published in The Vincent Brothers Review. This chapter, "The Landlady," is set in West Berlin.

I'm delighted to be the recipient of an artist residency on the exclusive Berlin island of Schwanenwerder through the generosity of the Cordts Art Foundation. As the website explains, "Having lived in West Berlin 1988‑90 and taught in the former East Germany, she will be working on a book about her Stasi file which contains some unusual (and false) assertions. Susan will move into the residence on Schwanenwerder from May 2024 to the beginning of August and looks forward to reencountering Berlin while reflecting on its past." It truly is magical to be here and work on my book.

I'm delighted that my new article is out which braids together my long-standing interests in pilgrimage and waste. It is called: "An Uncanny Pilgrimage through the Wastescapes of W.G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn and Cormac McCarthy's The Road: Synchronic Time and Revenant Metaphorical Thinking," Special Issue on Post-Apocalyptic Waste, Revenant 10 (2024): 143-161.

In 2010, my mother, Joan Wehlen Morrison, died, leaving behind her grieving family. Additionally, she left behind her journals, poetry, and diaries from the late 1930s-early 1940s from when she was ages 14-20. These materials, the original papers and notebooks, have been at my home in Austin, TX, for over a decade. But my husband and I plan to retire in the near future to a home on the seaside in Massachusetts. I've long wanted to have mom's collection archived at a professional library.

My dream was to have them housed at the University of Chicago which she graduated from in 1944. She talks about the university many times in her journals. My dream came true! Read here about the process of transferring this archive from my home to the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center at the University of Chicago.

This essay in The Font: A Literary Journal for Language Teachers retells the story of my teaching masters' students in the former East Germany (GDR) in fall 1988. "Behind the Iron Canon: Teaching Literary Theory in East Germany" was described by the editor as a "twisty tale of Cold War intrigue." I hope you enjoy it!

I just got my hard copy of "Climate Changes Global Perspectives." Cate Sandilands and I had great fun with our piece called "Story into Theory, Theory into Story: A Conversation on Braided Scholarship." We talk about how scholarly writing is a form of creative praxis. I encourage you to read the entire volume!

December 20, 2022 would have been my mom's 100th birthday. Joan was born on the (almost) shortest and the darkest day of the year. Yet she shed light on all those she met through her kindness and empathy. In the image I choose here for her--as the Virgin Mary in a church pageant when she was just 16 years old--her beatific face gazes at a doll or flashlight depicting the baby Jesus. She was a precocious writer, compassionately considering His birth in this poem from Mary's perspective written the previous Christmas of 1937.

Christmas 1937       

      Mary's son was not cold

      When the Wise Men came with gold

      Mary's son was newly born

      When the shepherds came with morn.

      Mary bore her son alone

      While above the wonder shone

      Of the star on just that night

      Led the shepherds there aright.

      All the years since then have passed

      Stars that shine will ever last.

      Why did that star only then

      Shine and never once again?

      Only once He came to Earth

      Only once proclaim His birth,

      But each year at Christmastide

      Yet we think of Him who died,

      And was born in that small town

      While the Wonder Star looked down.

      Let all the heavens still proclaim

      Honor to His Holy Name.

May all of us consider those who are vulnerable this holiday season!