Todd Swift



Todd Swift (born April 8, 1966) is a Canadian poet, editor, cultural activist and university lecturer based in the United Kingdom.

Background
Swift was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and raised in Saint-Lambert, Quebec. He received a B.A. in English from Concordia University (Montreal) and a Ph.D. in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia.

While attending university, Swift was one of Canada's most successful parliamentary debaters. He was President of the Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate and twice won the award for Top Speaker at the McGill University Winter Carnival Debating Tournament, as well as many other awards.

Swift is the author or editor of numerous collections of poetry. His works have been translated into Arabic, Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian and Korean. He has written for a number of publications, poems and reviews appearing in journals such as The Dubliner, The Globe and Mail, Books In Canada, Poetry London and The Guardian.

In 2004 he was Oxfam Great Britain's Poet-in-residence, and has continued to run their poetry series in London, and edit books, a DVD and CDs to help raise funds for the charity. He is a tutor with The Poetry School. He is Lecturer in English Literature and Creative Writing at Kingston University, England.

From 2005 on Swift has run the literary and popular culture blog "Eyewear". The blog is archived by the British Library. Swift briefly stopped writing the blog in January 2012 but began again after popular demand prompted its continuation. He runs the small press Eyewear Publishing.

Poetry (selected pamphlets)

 * The End of the Century - 1990
 * The Cone of Silence - 1991
 * American Standard - 1996
 * Elegy for Anthony Perkins - 2001
 * The Oil and Gas University - 2004
 * Natural Curve - 2006

Poetry (full collections)

 * Budavox - 1999
 * Café Alibi - 2002
 * Rue du Regard - 2004
 * Winter Tennis - 2007
 * Seaway: New and Selected Poems - 2008
 * Mainstream Love Hotel - 2009
 * England Is Mine - 2011

Edited

 * Map-makers' Colours: New Poets of Northern Ireland - 1988 (with Martin Mooney)
 * Poetry Nation: The North American Anthology of Fusion Poetry - 1998 (with Regie Cabico)
 * Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry - 2002 (with Phil Norton)
 * 100 Poets Against the War - 2003
 * In the Criminal's Cabinet - 2004
 * Future Welcome: The Moosehead Anthology X - 2005
 * Asking A Shadow To Dance: 35 Young British Poets For Oxfam - 2009 (DVD)
 * Modern Canadian Poets: An Anthology - 2010 (with Evan Jones)

Edited

 * Life Lines: Poets for Oxfam - 2006 (Audio CD)
 * Life Lines 2: Poets for Oxfam - 2007 (Audio CD)
 * Poems For Children: Michael Rosen and friends, 41 Poets for Oxfam - 2008 (Audio CD, with Judith Nicholls)