Sue Repko
Sue Repko is a high school English teacher and author of Legendary Locals of Pottstown, a former industrial and manufacturing center in southeastern Pennsylvania and her hometown. She is writing a memoir about her father, guns, and a shooting from her childhood that left a neighbor dead.
Her work has appeared in Hazlitt, Aquifer/The Florida Review Online, The MacGuffin, Tributaries, The Southeast Review, Hippocampus, The Common Online, Literal Latte, The Gettysburg Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, flashquake, Midway Journal, Bryant Literary Review, Broken Bridge Review, and the Princeton Alumni Weekly, among other print and online journals and newspapers.
She is also a volunteer gun violence prevention advocate with Moms Demand Action in Maine, presenting a message of gun safety to community groups and pediatricians around the state. She has a degree in psychology from Princeton University and a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Rutgers University; she is a licensed professional planner in the state of New Jersey and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. She received her MFA from Bennington College, where she studied with Dinah Lenney, Susan Cheever, Honor Moore, and Phillip Lopate.
Works

"What A Bullet Can Do"
A shot from my father’s gun killed our neighbor and traced a trajectory through decades of guilt, shame, fear and anger. In this essay, I unravel the moment my family calls “the accident.”
Awards and Recognition
- 2019 Maine Literary Award for Short Nonfiction
- Essays named notable in The Best American Essays 2016, 2017 & 2019