Pole Dancers at the Red Barn

“A subtle, ingenious, moving book. From the first page, Katz ushers us into a fully realized world. Her characters are not so much described as cracked open—the book is so electrically alive to what it is that makes us human, the wonder and tragedy and triumph of our lives and the lives of those who’ve shaped us. It is a multifaceted gemstone, each story offering its own sort of brilliance, and in aggregate, a kind of kaleidoscopic beauty.”—Menachem Kaiser, author of Plunder

“With flowing, lyrical prose, Susan Katz drew me into another world, another person’s life, and then another. She invited me to listen to despair, to hear a cry for escape, to watch someone find the road to oneself, to explore and experience their journey—and my own. She helped me look beyond the pole and see the dance.”—Mary Ruggie, author of Marginal to Mainstream

“When I was fifteen, I imagined running away and becoming a stripper. What I really wanted was the Red Barn, a place where we can all be ourselves, speak and dance our truth, and be received not only without judgment but also with joy. Susan Katz gives us a vision of a unique holy place where unconventional celebrants unite body and soul, ecstasy and wisdom.”—Elizabeth Cunningham, author of The Maeve Chronicles

“An exuberant and glorious celebration of the human spirit, of tenacity, and of the will to heal and transform by facing and overcoming trauma through community and dance. The language in this wonderful novel leaps across the page in a joyful affirmation of hope.”—L. Bordetsky-Williams, author of Forget Russia

“Katz delves beyond the stage-lit veneers of men and women, uncovering the forces that draw them to reveal themselves through pole dance, the liberation they find in community, and the restrictions endured by the women who raised them.”—Mary Tiulescu, author of Countries with No Names

“Through its episodic structure and generational lens, the involving novel in stories Pole Dancers at the Red Barn is about how sexuality, shame, labor, and belonging intersect within disparate lives shaped by social expectations and personal compromises.”—Foreword Reviews

Susan L. Katz is an alumna of the Writers’ Institute at the City University of New York and the New Directions Writing Program in Washington DC. Her stories have been published in the New Directions Journal of Fiction and Poetry.

Susan is also a photographer; her photo essays are housed in the Museum of the City of New York, the Bronx Museum of Art, and the library of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC.

For forty years, Susan worked as a psychotherapist and published articles on human development, addiction, and group therapy techniques. She lives in Rhinebeck, New York.

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