Birthday profile

Susan Wheeler

Susan Wheeler, American poet and academic

Born
July 16, 1955
Age in 2026
71
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1955

About Susan Wheeler

Susan Wheeler (born July 16, 1955) is an educator and poet. She is professor emeritus at Princeton University. She has also taught at the University of Iowa, New York University, Rutgers University, Columbia University and The New School. Wheeler was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in Minnesota and throughout New England. She received a BA from Bennington College in 1977 and pursued graduate studies in art history at the University of Chicago between 1979 and 1981. Wheeler was the first example of an Elliptical poet described by Stephanie Burt in her coinage of the term in 1998 and expanded upon in an eponymous essay in American Letters & Commentary. Her work is also referred to in Jed Rasula's Syncopations: The Stress of Innovation in Contemporary American Poetry. == Awards and honors == 1978 Vermont Arts Council grant 1987 Grolier Award for Poetry 1988 Roberts Foundation Prize for Poetry 1990 Fund for Poetry grant 1993 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship 1994 Norma Farber First Book Award, Bag o' Diamonds 1994 Pushcart Prize, Bag o' Diamonds 1997 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship 1999 Guggenheim Fellowship 2000 Pushcart Prize, Bag o' Diamonds 2012 National Book Award for Poetry finalist, Meme Her poems have appeared in The Best American Poetry series in these editions: 1988, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1998, The Best of the Best American Poetry 1988–1997, 2003, and 2005.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Susan Wheeler was born

Susan Wheeler was born in 1955. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1955

  • #1 song"Rock Around the Clock" – Bill Haley & His Comets
  • Top movieMarty
  • Top TV showThe $64,000 Question
  • Best-selling bookLolita – Vladimir Nabokov

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentBrooklyn Dodgers win their first World Series
  • Top headlineRosa Parks sparks the Montgomery Bus Boycott
  • Technology milestoneDisneyland opens in Anaheim, California
  • Defining fadJames Dean and rebel culture
  • Notable inventionVelcro commercially available
  • World population2.77 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championBrooklyn Dodgers (World Series)
  • Also wonSyracuse Nationals (NBA)
  • U.S. population165.3M

1955 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Susan Wheeler's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19552026
Gas$0.29$3.45/gal
Average home$10,950$435,000
Average income$6,200$67,500
Minimum wage$0.75$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.50$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population165.3M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.