Swan's
journalism has appeared in
American, British and US
publications. She started
as education reporter for
The Toronto Telegram in
l967 in the era of student
protest after working as a
cub reporter on the
Midland Free Press in
1961-1963. She went on to
write for the Toronto
Star
and for television with TVO,
the CBC
as well as performance
pieces in collaboration
with others. Her controversial performance art includes a show about Barbara Ann Scott titled “Queen of the Silver Blades” and “Down and In” about self pity. Susan
continues to contribute
essays and is commissioned
for her journalism in
recognition of her keen
insights, incisive
interviews, and her
ongoing activism in the
community of writing and
social awareness.
A complete bibliography is
available by downloading
Swan’s Curriculum Vitae
in the section About
Susan Swan,
which includes detailed
information in the
following categories:
• Samples
of book reviews written by
Susan Swan
• Material
written for television and
film by Susan Swan
• Samples
of essays and features
written by Susan Swan
• Selected
readings and cultural
exchanges
• Talks by
Susan Swan
Recent
Articles
Pop Rules, Banff, July 2009
Like it or not pop rules. Its power is reinforced by the Internet and a digital, electronic media, which creates a media-scape as influential as the natural landscapes of forests, grasslands and mountains were to our pioneer ancestors. But many of us remain skeptical of pop culture. If you are like me, attracted by pop's energy, you may feel schizophrenic because you enjoy a good mindless Hollywood action movie while still feeling let down by its banality and lack of substance.
Although I am a fan of pop, I am also one of its sternest critics because as a novelist, my tradition is literature with its ties to Gutenberg and the world of print.
But as Susan Sontag points out in “Notes on Camp” there is no better person to talk about a cultural phenomenon than somebody with “a deep sympathy modified by revulsion.” So I offer the following Notes on Pop as an homage to Susan Sontag who once famously said that camp converts the serious into the frivolous.
Locating Myself in the Casanova Craze, BookShorts, August 2005
You can't go home again, National Post, June 18, 2005
Love secrets from Casanova, MSN: Match.com website, July, 2005
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