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
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.
@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
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!
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
The worst is happening!
June 12, 2025 at 8:48 PM
The worst is happening!
My biggest beef with myself? I told CBC’s Next Chapter that I need to stop going down every rabbit hole on social media to argue with everyone I disagree with.
www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...
#biggestmodernwriter #canadianwriter #harpercollinscanada #beaconpress #author #biggirlsdontcry
www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...
#biggestmodernwriter #canadianwriter #harpercollinscanada #beaconpress #author #biggirlsdontcry
June 10, 2025 at 5:02 PM
My biggest beef with myself? I told CBC’s Next Chapter that I need to stop going down every rabbit hole on social media to argue with everyone I disagree with.
www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...
#biggestmodernwriter #canadianwriter #harpercollinscanada #beaconpress #author #biggirlsdontcry
www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...
#biggestmodernwriter #canadianwriter #harpercollinscanada #beaconpress #author #biggirlsdontcry
“I think people want to be seen more… having a voice and being heard.” I wrote this memoir to understand how size had shaped my life.
June 8, 2025 at 11:03 PM
“I think people want to be seen more… having a voice and being heard.” I wrote this memoir to understand how size had shaped my life.
To be big is a no-no for women… but we’re taking up space regardless. Get my new memoir Big Girl Don’t Cry anywhere you get books to learn how I overcame that shame and to take up my space. @oprah-winfrey.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social @beaconpress.bsky.social
June 2, 2025 at 5:32 PM
To be big is a no-no for women… but we’re taking up space regardless. Get my new memoir Big Girl Don’t Cry anywhere you get books to learn how I overcame that shame and to take up my space. @oprah-winfrey.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social @beaconpress.bsky.social
For more information, visit www.susanswanonline.com
May 30, 2025 at 11:55 PM
For more information, visit www.susanswanonline.com
Big Girls Don’t Cry, A Memoir about Taking Up Space, will be in the stores May 27 in both Canada and the US.
Join us May 27 at the Tranzac Club at 6:30pm to celebrate the release party with an exclusive Q&A about the memoir hosted by author Sheila Heiti.
Join us May 27 at the Tranzac Club at 6:30pm to celebrate the release party with an exclusive Q&A about the memoir hosted by author Sheila Heiti.
May 19, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Big Girls Don’t Cry, A Memoir about Taking Up Space, will be in the stores May 27 in both Canada and the US.
Join us May 27 at the Tranzac Club at 6:30pm to celebrate the release party with an exclusive Q&A about the memoir hosted by author Sheila Heiti.
Join us May 27 at the Tranzac Club at 6:30pm to celebrate the release party with an exclusive Q&A about the memoir hosted by author Sheila Heiti.
Don’t miss the next Avie Bennett Lecture on April 25 at the Isabel Bader Theatre.
Get a ticket at www.eventbrite.ca/e/literature...
Get a ticket at www.eventbrite.ca/e/literature...
April 18, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Don’t miss the next Avie Bennett Lecture on April 25 at the Isabel Bader Theatre.
Get a ticket at www.eventbrite.ca/e/literature...
Get a ticket at www.eventbrite.ca/e/literature...
Don’t forget to join us on Zoom tonight at 7 pm when I interview Claire Messud about her latest novel The Strange Eventful History. Her epic about three generations of a globalist family with a shameful secret offers some answers.
Register at gillerprize.ca/giller-book-...
Register at gillerprize.ca/giller-book-...
April 16, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Don’t forget to join us on Zoom tonight at 7 pm when I interview Claire Messud about her latest novel The Strange Eventful History. Her epic about three generations of a globalist family with a shameful secret offers some answers.
Register at gillerprize.ca/giller-book-...
Register at gillerprize.ca/giller-book-...
Waiting for reviews of a new book gives authors the willies. Do they really like it, you wonder. (Writers are notorious for remembering only the bad reviews & not the good.) Here’s the first review and it’s positive. Hooray!
Read more at
everythingzoomer.com/zed-book-club/2025/04/08/spring-quartet/
Read more at
everythingzoomer.com/zed-book-club/2025/04/08/spring-quartet/
April 9, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Waiting for reviews of a new book gives authors the willies. Do they really like it, you wonder. (Writers are notorious for remembering only the bad reviews & not the good.) Here’s the first review and it’s positive. Hooray!
Read more at
everythingzoomer.com/zed-book-club/2025/04/08/spring-quartet/
Read more at
everythingzoomer.com/zed-book-club/2025/04/08/spring-quartet/
I’m excited to share the short list of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction today. Only in its third year and it’s already become a major international literary award!
Read more exclusively with People Magazine: tinyurl.com/4fukycvm
Prize co-founded by Susan Swan, Don Oravec, and Janice Zawerbny.
Read more exclusively with People Magazine: tinyurl.com/4fukycvm
Prize co-founded by Susan Swan, Don Oravec, and Janice Zawerbny.
April 3, 2025 at 2:50 PM
I’m excited to share the short list of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction today. Only in its third year and it’s already become a major international literary award!
Read more exclusively with People Magazine: tinyurl.com/4fukycvm
Prize co-founded by Susan Swan, Don Oravec, and Janice Zawerbny.
Read more exclusively with People Magazine: tinyurl.com/4fukycvm
Prize co-founded by Susan Swan, Don Oravec, and Janice Zawerbny.
It’s a thrill to see this write-up in CBC books about my memoir, Big Girls Don’t Cry, coming out this May with Harper Collins Canada & Beacon Press in the US. I can’t wait to share it with you. You can pre-order it at www.harpercollins.com/products/big... and at www.beacon.org/Big-Girls-Do...
March 8, 2025 at 10:51 PM
It’s a thrill to see this write-up in CBC books about my memoir, Big Girls Don’t Cry, coming out this May with Harper Collins Canada & Beacon Press in the US. I can’t wait to share it with you. You can pre-order it at www.harpercollins.com/products/big... and at www.beacon.org/Big-Girls-Do...
Over a decade ago when a group of Canadian and American women and one feminist man started working on the Shields Prize we never dreamed that in just three years it would become a major English language literary prize. Congratulations to every writer on the 2025 long list.
March 7, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Over a decade ago when a group of Canadian and American women and one feminist man started working on the Shields Prize we never dreamed that in just three years it would become a major English language literary prize. Congratulations to every writer on the 2025 long list.
Recently, I’ve been having nightmares about America under Trump. So I wrote this poem. Send me your dreams if you’re having them too.
March 3, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Recently, I’ve been having nightmares about America under Trump. So I wrote this poem. Send me your dreams if you’re having them too.
I’m excited to share a sneak preview excerpt from my upcoming Memoir, Big Girls Don’t Cry, published by HarperCollins Canada and Beacon Press in the US.
February 24, 2025 at 12:00 AM
I’m excited to share a sneak preview excerpt from my upcoming Memoir, Big Girls Don’t Cry, published by HarperCollins Canada and Beacon Press in the US.
I’m with one of my oldest friends Mary Susanne Lamont at Parquet. The pub date was moved from April to May when US publisher Beacon Press bought it.
#canlit #memoir #canadianmemoir #books #literature #book #publishingdate #comingsoon #biggirlsdontcry #literary #writing #writer
#canlit #memoir #canadianmemoir #books #literature #book #publishingdate #comingsoon #biggirlsdontcry #literary #writing #writer
February 3, 2025 at 4:38 PM
I’m with one of my oldest friends Mary Susanne Lamont at Parquet. The pub date was moved from April to May when US publisher Beacon Press bought it.
#canlit #memoir #canadianmemoir #books #literature #book #publishingdate #comingsoon #biggirlsdontcry #literary #writing #writer
#canlit #memoir #canadianmemoir #books #literature #book #publishingdate #comingsoon #biggirlsdontcry #literary #writing #writer
FOR THE LOVE Of A CAT
Yesterday: After I tripped helping my arthritic cat up on the bed.
Today: Alice and I are happy again.
#cat #catowner #ilovemycat #writersandtheircats #cats #accident #catsofinstagram #catlife #instacat #catstagram #catgram
Yesterday: After I tripped helping my arthritic cat up on the bed.
Today: Alice and I are happy again.
#cat #catowner #ilovemycat #writersandtheircats #cats #accident #catsofinstagram #catlife #instacat #catstagram #catgram
January 21, 2025 at 10:50 PM
FOR THE LOVE Of A CAT
Yesterday: After I tripped helping my arthritic cat up on the bed.
Today: Alice and I are happy again.
#cat #catowner #ilovemycat #writersandtheircats #cats #accident #catsofinstagram #catlife #instacat #catstagram #catgram
Yesterday: After I tripped helping my arthritic cat up on the bed.
Today: Alice and I are happy again.
#cat #catowner #ilovemycat #writersandtheircats #cats #accident #catsofinstagram #catlife #instacat #catstagram #catgram