Susan Swan
@susan-swan.bsky.social
Bluesky convert. Author, journalist, co-founder of Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. New book: Big Girls Don’t Cry: A Memoir about Taking Up Space published in Canada and the US May 2025 My website: http://www.susanswanonline.com
I’m on the list and can’t wait to start reading the others!! @beaconpress.bsky.social @harpercollinsca.bsky.social
Thanks for the gift link, @danwagstaff.bsky.social!
Best books on the list include those by @amalelmohtar.com, @guygavrielkay.bsky.social, @susan-swan.bsky.social, @clairecameron.bsky.social, @pulmyears.bsky.social, @marshalederman.bsky.social, and @hertzbarry.bsky.social.
#ReadCanadian 🍁📚
Best books on the list include those by @amalelmohtar.com, @guygavrielkay.bsky.social, @susan-swan.bsky.social, @clairecameron.bsky.social, @pulmyears.bsky.social, @marshalederman.bsky.social, and @hertzbarry.bsky.social.
#ReadCanadian 🍁📚
Here's a gift link to the Globe 100 for the Canadian book folks:
www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/b287550...
www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/b287550...
November 28, 2025 at 7:16 PM
I’m on the list and can’t wait to start reading the others!! @beaconpress.bsky.social @harpercollinsca.bsky.social
The fearless Tara Henley interviews me about vigilante sex, hating the opposite gender, secret Seventies diaries and more on her podcast Lean Out tarahenley.substack.com @harpercollinsca.bsky.social @beaconpress.bsky.social
November 19, 2025 at 8:11 PM
The fearless Tara Henley interviews me about vigilante sex, hating the opposite gender, secret Seventies diaries and more on her podcast Lean Out tarahenley.substack.com @harpercollinsca.bsky.social @beaconpress.bsky.social
Hi everyone, I’m spending most of my time these days on Instagram. Check me out under biggestmodernwriter. Here’s an early holiday greeting with my cat Alice who doesn’t think much of photo sessions & thanks for your support.
November 12, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Hi everyone, I’m spending most of my time these days on Instagram. Check me out under biggestmodernwriter. Here’s an early holiday greeting with my cat Alice who doesn’t think much of photo sessions & thanks for your support.
@newyorktimeshaiku.bsky.social let America down today by relegating coverage of @nokingspls.bsky.social to page 22 of Sunday edition. WTF? Are they scared of Trump too?
October 19, 2025 at 2:59 PM
@newyorktimeshaiku.bsky.social let America down today by relegating coverage of @nokingspls.bsky.social to page 22 of Sunday edition. WTF? Are they scared of Trump too?
This smart natural blonde lays out being blonde no dummy her! ://open.substack.com/pub/thecassandracomplex/p/on-blondes?r=33gce
On Blondes
Why we need to stop bleaching and/or dyeing our hair ... and should grow out our "spiritual antenna".
open.substack.com
September 30, 2025 at 3:16 AM
This smart natural blonde lays out being blonde no dummy her! ://open.substack.com/pub/thecassandracomplex/p/on-blondes?r=33gce
The US government has turned into a dictatorship. Canadians like me are watching in disbelief and horror. Can this be the America we knew and loved?
"Speech by speech, step by step, transgression by transgression, the world is grasping the scale of over-reach & unfettered behavior the White House occupant is pursuing...I feel a growing sense of relief that those of us who grasp the insanity are not alone." www.americaamerica.news/p/to-feel-le...
To Feel Less Alone
Let's take strength in the growing recognition at home and abroad that Trump’s vindictive, over-reaching authoritarianism cannot last
www.americaamerica.news
September 26, 2025 at 1:39 PM
The US government has turned into a dictatorship. Canadians like me are watching in disbelief and horror. Can this be the America we knew and loved?
Thank you, Brian!
Reviews are getting harder & harder to get but here’s a link with no pay wall to a good one for Big Girls Don’t Cry reviewcanada.ca/magazine/202... @beaconpress.bsky.social
September 22, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Thank you, Brian!
@b-hmn.bsky.social September 18 my husband Patrick Crean & I received Orders of Canada, his for editing, and me for my contribution to Canadian writing and cofounding the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Its motto says: they desire a better country @beaconpress.bsky.social @gayleking.bsky.social
September 22, 2025 at 6:46 PM
@b-hmn.bsky.social September 18 my husband Patrick Crean & I received Orders of Canada, his for editing, and me for my contribution to Canadian writing and cofounding the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Its motto says: they desire a better country @beaconpress.bsky.social @gayleking.bsky.social
Celebrated screen writer Susan Coyne is shopping around her TV pilot of my memoir Big Girls Don’t Cry @beaconpress.bsky.social @harpercollinsca.bsky.social @authorsguild.org
September 12, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Celebrated screen writer Susan Coyne is shopping around her TV pilot of my memoir Big Girls Don’t Cry @beaconpress.bsky.social @harpercollinsca.bsky.social @authorsguild.org
Reviews are getting harder & harder to get but here’s a link with no pay wall to a good one for Big Girls Don’t Cry reviewcanada.ca/magazine/202... @beaconpress.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reviews are getting harder & harder to get but here’s a link with no pay wall to a good one for Big Girls Don’t Cry reviewcanada.ca/magazine/202... @beaconpress.bsky.social
Reviews are harder & harder for authors to get especially in Canada but here’s a good one for Big Girls Don’t Cry from Toronto:https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/20 @beaconpress.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Reviews are harder & harder for authors to get especially in Canada but here’s a good one for Big Girls Don’t Cry from Toronto:https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/20 @beaconpress.bsky.social
Are they scared of Trump? Why don’t they do their job?
CALL ABC, NBC, CBS AND ASK THEM WHY IN THE FUCK THEY ARE NOT COVERING THESE ANTI TRUMP PROTESTS?
AND THEN, CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BOYCOTT THE PROPAGANDA OUTLETS!
AND THEN, CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BOYCOTT THE PROPAGANDA OUTLETS!
September 1, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Are they scared of Trump? Why don’t they do their job?
Pritzker is a hero. Hats off to his courage! From the true north strong and free! @jbpritzker.bsky.social
“If you hurt my people,” Gov JB Pritzker said, “nothing will stop me, not time or political circumstance, from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.”
www.americaamerica.news/p/snapshot-y...
www.americaamerica.news/p/snapshot-y...
Snapshot: "You Are Neither Wanted Here Nor Needed Here"
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker starkly warns Donald Trump not to send military troops to Chicago
www.americaamerica.news
August 27, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Pritzker is a hero. Hats off to his courage! From the true north strong and free! @jbpritzker.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/heatherc... Honouring The Brave American Feminists today who fought for women over 100 years ago. White women got the vote in 1919. Black women had to wait 45 more years. 🙁 @beaconpress.bsky.social @msnbc.com @msmagazine.com
The Nineteenth Amendment
Yesterday, I intended to write about the Nineteenth Amendment prohibiting states from denying women the right to vote because today is the anniversary of the amendment’s certification in 1920.
open.substack.com
August 27, 2025 at 2:10 AM
open.substack.com/pub/heatherc... Honouring The Brave American Feminists today who fought for women over 100 years ago. White women got the vote in 1919. Black women had to wait 45 more years. 🙁 @beaconpress.bsky.social @msnbc.com @msmagazine.com
People are reading my memoir as far away as Kazakhstan. Here’s Joseph Hafner, York U’s Dean of libraries reading it out loud as part of a flash mob during an international conference. What crazy fun!
August 26, 2025 at 6:03 PM
People are reading my memoir as far away as Kazakhstan. Here’s Joseph Hafner, York U’s Dean of libraries reading it out loud as part of a flash mob during an international conference. What crazy fun!
Thanks for the plug. I’m with Dutch critic Conny Steenman Marcusse (the one in the hat)who gave it a thumbs up. NB. We’re staying out of the sun!
August 12, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Thanks for the plug. I’m with Dutch critic Conny Steenman Marcusse (the one in the hat)who gave it a thumbs up. NB. We’re staying out of the sun!
It’s all healed. That was in January!
August 5, 2025 at 1:02 PM
It’s all healed. That was in January!
Americans love a conman? Look at P.T. Barnum. Everybody knew his exhibits like the Fiji Mermaid were a hoax, but the American public wanted to see if he could get away with it.
What I can’t quite figure out is why so many people who continue to support the current president STILL don’t seem to realize that there is no good ending to a story built on lies and demagoguery. A level of delusion far greater and longer lasting than I ever would’ve imagined. What explains this?
August 2, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Americans love a conman? Look at P.T. Barnum. Everybody knew his exhibits like the Fiji Mermaid were a hoax, but the American public wanted to see if he could get away with it.
Before Trump, America’s great gift to the world was appreciating what made an individual unique no matter where they came from.
It was the example of Gordon Lish’s class and many of @susan-swan.bsky.social’s NY writer friends that encouraged her to let loose and celebrate who she was. Her size was a bonus, not a drawback.
Standing Tall: On the Value and Importance of Women Who Take Up Space
Is our size a psychological influence in our lives like other markers such as race, class, cultural background and gender identity? In this conversation, six-foot-two author Jane Smiley (A Thousand…
buff.ly
July 10, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Before Trump, America’s great gift to the world was appreciating what made an individual unique no matter where they came from.
If a girl grows over 6’2 even today she will have a hard time. When I was Olivia McGahern’s age, growing taller than six feet was the red line for our gender scripts. See Olivia’s piece on being 6’4 www.cbc.ca/news/Canada/...
June 25, 2025 at 1:46 PM
If a girl grows over 6’2 even today she will have a hard time. When I was Olivia McGahern’s age, growing taller than six feet was the red line for our gender scripts. See Olivia’s piece on being 6’4 www.cbc.ca/news/Canada/...
Short men have similar problems. Some opt for leg lengthening surgeries b/c they’re gaslit with names like “garden gnomes.” @harpercollinsca.bsky.social
Supermodels have made height glamorous in women, and the tendency to ridicule or disparage tall women isn’t as common now as it used to be. The fact remains that for many of us our size is part of the way we pattern ourselves. @susan-swan.bsky.social
In Defence of Big Women Who Take Up Space in the World | The Walrus
Why does being feminine still mean projecting a smaller public self?
buff.ly
June 24, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Short men have similar problems. Some opt for leg lengthening surgeries b/c they’re gaslit with names like “garden gnomes.” @harpercollinsca.bsky.social
Novelist Jane Smiley & I compare growing pains in her Lit Hub Q&A June 20 about my memoir Big Girls Don’t Cry @harpercollinsca.bsky.social @beaconpress.bsky.social share.google/KvrGe4qwLFXx...
June 23, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Novelist Jane Smiley & I compare growing pains in her Lit Hub Q&A June 20 about my memoir Big Girls Don’t Cry @harpercollinsca.bsky.social @beaconpress.bsky.social share.google/KvrGe4qwLFXx...
Author Shelley Saywell interviewed me about my new memoir Big Girls Don’t Cry in historical Queenston where artists @sharonokun.bsky.social and Adam Markovic have transformed an old school into a cultural hub
June 22, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Author Shelley Saywell interviewed me about my new memoir Big Girls Don’t Cry in historical Queenston where artists @sharonokun.bsky.social and Adam Markovic have transformed an old school into a cultural hub
Reposted by Susan Swan
Jane Smiley and @susan-swan.bsky.social discuss the importance of women who take up space: “Being unusually tall makes you feel set apart because mostly everybody else sees someone with the same weight, height and coloring every day.”
Standing Tall: On the Value and Importance of Women Who Take Up Space
Is our size a psychological influence in our lives like other markers such as race, class, cultural background and gender identity? In this conversation, six-foot-two author Jane Smiley (A Thousand…
buff.ly
June 20, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Jane Smiley and @susan-swan.bsky.social discuss the importance of women who take up space: “Being unusually tall makes you feel set apart because mostly everybody else sees someone with the same weight, height and coloring every day.”
Jane was six foot two at 14. I hit six foot two earlier, at 12.
Jane Smiley and @susan-swan.bsky.social discuss the importance of women who take up space: “Being unusually tall makes you feel set apart because mostly everybody else sees someone with the same weight, height and coloring every day.”
Standing Tall: On the Value and Importance of Women Who Take Up Space
Is our size a psychological influence in our lives like other markers such as race, class, cultural background and gender identity? In this conversation, six-foot-two author Jane Smiley (A Thousand…
buff.ly
June 20, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Jane was six foot two at 14. I hit six foot two earlier, at 12.