Person

Swift, Todd, 1966-

1966-

Stanley Todd Swift was born on April 8, 1966, in Montreal, Quebec.

He is a British-Canadian poet, university teacher, editor, critic, and publisher based in the United Kingdom. He graduated from Concordia University, Montreal (B.A. in English) and the University of East Anglia (M.A. and Ph.D. in Creative and Critical Writing). In 2013, he became a British citizen. While attending university, Swift was an active parliamentary debater and ran the international cabaret Vox Hunt, which featured regular performances by Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright. He was friends with rising literary stars, including Misha Glouberman, Heather O'Neill, and David McGimpsey. He was also half of the electronic music-poetry duo Swifty Lazarus, featuring composer-trombonist Tom Walsh. In the 1990s, Swift wrote hundreds of hours of television (mostly children's animation) for HBO, Paramount, Hanna-Barbera, Fox, Cinar and DIC Entertainment and was a story editor for many episodes of the anime show Sailor Moon. He also worked at General Media, Inc. (Penthouse) for several years as a writer and editor of erotica. In his formally innovative lyric poems, Swift engages themes of innocence and experience. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including “Selected Poems” (2014), “When All My Disappointments Came at Once” (2012), “England Is Mine” (2011), “Mainstream Love Hotel” (2009), “Seaway: New and Selected Poems” (2008) and “Budavox” (1999). He has edited or co-edited numerous anthologies, including “100 Poets Against the War” (2003), “Modern Canadian Poets: An Anthology” (with Evan Jones, 2010), and “Lung Jazz: Young British Poets for Oxfam” (with Kim Lockwood, 2012). With Martin Mooney, he coedited “Map-Maker’s Colours: New Poets of Northern Ireland” (1988). Swift’s work has been featured in numerous anthologies, including “The Best Canadian Poetry in English”, “The New Canon: An Anthology of Canadian Poetry” (2006), “Open Field: 30 Contemporary Canadian Poets” (2005), and “Radio Waves: Poems Celebrating the Wireless” (2004). His honours include membership in the League of Canadian Poets and a term as the Oxfam Great Britain poet-in-residence. Swift has taught at Kingston University and Concordia University. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Writing at the University of Worcester. He lives in London and maintains dual Canadian and British citizenship.