Susan Kerr van de Ven was born in 1958 at the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon. As a child she lived in the United States, Egypt, Lebanon, France, England, and Tunisia. She earned a master's degree in Middle Eastern studies and a doctorate in education from Harvard University. She lives in Cambridge, England, where she runs a creative writing program for primary school children and serves as a Liberal Democrat councillor on South Cambridgeshire District Council.