Susanne Antonetta

Susanne Antonetta is the pen name of Suzanne Paola (born 1956, in Georgia), an American poet and author who is most widely known for her book Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir (). In 2001, Body Toxic received recognition as a 'Notable Book' from the New York Times. An excerpt of "Body Toxic" was published as a stand-alone essay which was recognized as a 'Notable Essay' in the 1998 Best American Essays 1998 anthology. She has published several prize-winning collections of poems, including Bardo, a Brittingham Prize in Poetry winner, and the poetry books Petitioner, Glass, and most recently The Lives of The Saints. She currently resides in Washington with her husband and adopted son. She is widely published both in newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as in literary journals including Orion, Brevity, JuxtaProse Literary Magazine, Seneca Review, and Image. She is the current Editor-in-Chief of Bellingham Review.

Paola was raised among the New Jersey Pine Barrens, which she later used as the setting for Body Toxic (and the haunt of the Jersey Devil), in one of the most environmentally contaminated counties in the United States. Paola's memoir merges her personal and familial sagas with historical accounts, politics, and environmentalism. Body Toxic depicts an American family in the midst of what the author perceives as the wreckage of the American dream.

Paola writes about how the poisoned landscape of her New Jersey childhood devastated her body, causing cardiac arrhythmia, seizures, severe allergies, and sterility. She recounts the story of the Radium Girls, details aspects of the frequent nuclear and industrial waste debacles in New Jersey, and relates these events to her family and neighbors.

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