Alumna Publishes First Book with Faculty Guidance

Susana Cuartas-Ordoñez’s poetry collection explores love’s highs and lows

Sacred Heart University alumna Susana Cuartas-Ordoñez ’18 has published her first book, a poetry collection titled Midnight Café, which went on sale this week.

Professor Jonas Zdanys, poet-in-residence at SHU, edited the poetry. Zdanys was one of Cuartas-Ordoñez’s professors at Sacred Heart, and she began what would eventually become the book’s manuscript under his advice during her independent study.

“Sacred Heart provides opportunities for students and faculty members to work together on so many different interesting projects, to learn from one another and to help lay the groundwork for future success in many fields and endeavors,” said Zdanys. “My work with Susana when she was my student, and now my work with her as her editor, affirm the wonderful results made possible by our University’s commitment to the importance of collaborative education.”

Cuartas-Ordoñez’s poems explore the highs and lows that love can bring, specifically focusing on the pain of the past brought on by an unnamed lost love. “If there is one thing I want Midnight Café to stand for, it would be the importance of showing human emotion,” said Cuartas-Ordoñez. “Revealing it in all its facets. The good, but more importantly, the times we’re not so willing to share. The things we’re only willing to admit to ourselves.”

Midnight Café is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Cuartas-Ordoñez can be found on Instagram and Twitter at @sc_wordsmith.