She was born Susan Firestone in Chicago, Illinois on November 11, 1951, and attended Highland Park High School. She attended Northwestern University where she received a B.A. and an M.A. in psychology[2] She began working at the Woodlawn Mental Health Center after graduation and became licensed as a group therapist.[2] After incorporating writing and art into her therapy, she began to write her own work and submitted some of her poems to Poetry magazine, where they were accepted.[2]
In 1997 she started editing TriQuarterly literary magazine.[3][4] She remained with TriQuarterly until 2010, when the magazine went to an online-only format.[5] She is also a co-editor of works published by Northwestern University.[4]
Hahn was the Ernest Hemingway Foundation's first writer-in-residence in 2013.[6]
Hahn's writing has been described by Donna Seaman as displaying "bewitching" language and "sly" humor.[7] As the featured Illinois poet, her work was described by the State of Illinois as "voyages into the uncharted seas of self and other."[8]
^ abcdBercovitch, Sacvan, ed. (1996). The Cambridge History of American Literature. Vol. 8. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 231–232. ISBN0521497337.