Susan Hanley Lane is an intriguing blend of Northern fire and Southern comfort.

Raised largely in the ethnically rich neighborhoods of Jersey City, New Jersey, during the volatile decade of the 1960’s, Lane moved back to her mother’s area of the country, North Carolina, as an adult, where she has learned to appreciate the wry wit and quiet cadence of Southern living.

She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Asheville with a degree in print Journalism. Her column, Life in the Middle, has appeared in the Hendersonville Times News since 1994. She is also a Registered Nurse, working mainly in the area of psychiatric nursing and substance abuse.

In 2001, Susan Lane received an award for addressing Women’s Issues in Journalism from The North Carolina Women of Achievement. Her column has twice received first place for serious columns from the North Carolina Press Association, and won first place nationally in the editorial division from the National Federation of Press Women.