College Commons

Author Susan Wider discusses genre-bending artist Charlotte Salomon's work and how it survived the Shoah to capture a life and time. It’s My Whole Life: Charlotte Salomon: An Artist in Hiding during World War II, winner of the 2022 National Jewish Book Award for Young Adult Literature Susan Wider is the author of It’s My Whole Life: Charlotte Salomon: An Artist in Hiding during World War II, winner of the 2022 National Jewish Book Award for Young Adult Literature. It’s My Whole Life is the first biography for teen and young adult readers about the art and life of German-Jewish artist and modernist painter Charlotte Salomon (1917 Berlin—Auschwitz 1943). The book is also finding a strong audience among adult readers of art and biography. Charlotte Salomon is remembered for her painted memoir, Life? or Theater? where she combined her 33,000-word manuscript, nearly 800 paintings, and a musical soundtrack, all hinting at a film storyboard or graphic novel-style presentation. It is thought to be the largest single work of art created by a Jew during the Holocaust, and she produced it while confronting racism, genocide, psychological abuse, family suicides, and the strife of loving an older man. What she wanted most was to make a name for herself as an artist. Susan Wider’s articles, essays, and art reviews have been included in Orion, THE magazine, The Fourth River, and Wild Hope magazine among others. Before becoming a full-time author, she held senior management positions at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, The Santa Fe Institute, and Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute. Earlier in her career she taught English for the French Chamber of Commerce in Normandy, France and worked as a violinist in professional chamber and symphony orchestras. Susan lives outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, where she shares the land with an assortment of hawks, snakes, woodpeckers, bobcats, coyotes, and a husband.