Susan Hampton was born in Inverell. She has a diploma from the Newcastle Teacher's College and a BA from Sydney University. Having worked as a teacher she is currently an editor and has worked on books such as Stravinsky's Lunch, Gilgamesh, and The Poison Principle. Six volumes of her poetry and short stories have been published.
Hampton has been the poetry editor for The Canberra Times and edited the anthology Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets. Her collection, The Kindly Ones, was short listed for the 2006 C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry and Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry.