iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 19h

It is very discouraging. And the current white White House isn’t helping.

Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

As a student at McGill University in the 60s, I was assaulted by an ex-boyfriend who tried to kill me and a second time by an acquaintance who tried to rape me. Both attempts failed, and I’ve gone on to have a successful writing career. I want the same for Jane Doe who was gang raped at Cornell.

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

What does this woman know about Canadian books that you don’t?Richard Stursberg, the author of his new book, Lament for a Literature, is speaking in the post. It’s a clip from his interview about the decline of Canadian publishing by Tara Henley on her smart, savvy substack Lean Out.

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Giles Blunt used the pseudonym M. J. Cates for his novel Into that Fire. Now that authors do most of their own publicity, an author with a pseudonym can’t appear on radio, television or literary festivals. The result? No attention for your book. Now he's reclaiming the novel under his own name.

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I love Gloria Steinem and all the trailblazing American women who fought and still fight for equality for all of us…who show us what greatness truly means…There are too many to name here. The world is a better place for having had all of you in it. RIP Gloria.

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Big Girls Don’t Cry began from a seed my friend Margaret planted. I was planning on writing a book for young feminists when Margaret suggested I write a book about my height instead. Here’s to friendships shaping the destiny of our work. Big Girls Don’t Cry is coming to American bookstores in June!

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

And that includes the wonderful Cece Scott, from Creating Aging Books & Ideas, too!

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Thank God for podcasters at a time when book coverage has shrunk in North America. They’re starting to do the job that newspaper reviews once did. And as writers with published books can attest, that means a lot. So, my personal thanks to these podcasters for putting their finger in the dike.

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

The great adventure of making your own YouTube TV pilot began yesterday when broadcaster Gill Deacon (almost 60) and journalist Cathrin’s Bradbury (70) and yours truly (over 80) had fun with show runner Anne Marie Jackson blowing up some stereotypes about aging. Stay tuned for the launch.

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Author Richard Stursberg says Canadian books occupy only 5% of the Canadian book market and Canadians should do something about it. Read his interview on Lean Out, the substack with Tara Henley. The podcast version is free for anyone to listen: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/l...

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

That’s fine dude. I’m not mad at you are the last words of Renee Nicole Good before her killer shot her in the face. #reneegood #america #americanhero

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

For years, I made new years resolutions until I realized it was a foolhardy practice. I ended up breaking them and feeling badly about myself. So I’ve been making new year’s aspirations successfully for over three decades now. Why not be like writers and artists who dwell in possibility?🥂

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Why we should be more like writers and artists who aspire instead of making up New Year’s resolutions for ourselves: I’ll explain January 1, 2026. The beautiful painting is by @sharonokun.bsky.social #newyearsresolutions #happyholidays #holidays

sharonokun.bsky.social

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Wishing you and all your furry loved ones a very Merry Christmas! Love, Susan & Alice 🐾

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

Thank you to my old stomping grounds McGill University, for highlighting Big Girls Don’t Cry on your holiday reading list! Congratulations to fellow alumni who published books in 2025, Grace Flahive, Alex Hutchinson, & Brendan Kelly. Read the full review here: mcgillnews.mcgill.ca/holiday-read...

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

I’m on the list and can’t wait to start reading the others!! @beaconpress.bsky.social @harpercollinsca.bsky.social

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

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

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

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.

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

@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?

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

This smart natural blonde lays out being blonde no dummy her! ://open.substack.com/pub/thecassandracomplex/p/on-blondes?r=33gce

open.substack.com

On Blondes

Why we need to stop bleaching and/or dyeing our hair ... and should grow out our "spiritual antenna".

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

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?

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

@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

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

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

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

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

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

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

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Are they scared of Trump? Why don’t they do their job?

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Pritzker is a hero. Hats off to his courage! From the true north strong and free! @jbpritzker.bsky.social

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

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!

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

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!

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

It’s all healed. That was in January!

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

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.

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Before Trump, America’s great gift to the world was appreciating what made an individual unique no matter where they came from.

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

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/...

cbc.ca

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Short men have similar problems. Some opt for leg lengthening surgeries b/c they’re gaslit with names like “garden gnomes.” @harpercollinsca.bsky.social

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

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...

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

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

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Reposted by Susan Swan

Lit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

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.”

buff.ly

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…

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Jane was six foot two at 14. I hit six foot two earlier, at 12.

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

What on earth? This isn’t how America works.

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

On the verge of losing your temper

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Yes it can—if you don’t get mad. But I like your positive approach

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

What you desire always awaits you if you are brave enough to recognize it

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Lots more on my website about women taking & ceding space www.susanswanonline.com

online.com

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

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

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Susan Swan @susan-swan.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

“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.

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