Todd Swift was born in Montreal and grew up in St. Lambert. He served on two occasions as The Canadian League of Poets' representative for Quebec. His poetry series Vox Hunt (1995-97) was hailed by The Globe & Mail as "virtually unique in North America." From 1998-2000, he was the Visiting Lecturer at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, specializing in courses on poetry and film. In 2001, he moved to Paris, then to London, England, where he earned an M.A. in Creative Writing from The University of East Anglia. His poems have appeared in journals such as Poetry Review, The Guardian, and New American Writing, as well as on ABC, BBC, CBC, and RTE radio. He is poetry editor of Nthposition.com and edited the e-book 100 Poets Against the War (2003). He has reviewed for Books in Canada, Poetry London, and The Dubliner, among others, and has been Oxfam Great Britain's Poet In Residence since 2004. His latest publication is a collection of essays entitled Language Acts (Vehicule, 2007), the first major study of Anglo-Quebec poetry in over 40 years, co-edited with Jason Camlot. Swift lives in London, England, with his wife Sara.

"In this collection, Todd Swift — always engagingly readable — extends his ambitious and dazzling range of skills and styles. "

— Roddy Lumsden, author of Mischief Night: New and Selected Poems

"Todd Swift has a remarkably capacious imagination."

—Montreal Review of Books, 2004

"Swift perfects the irreverence of his humour."

—Hour



"We are lucky to have him overseas contributing to this impressive catalogue of written work.... Finally and most tellingly, Swift asks in A Good Person in Snow: 'Is it wrong to hold ever tighter as you disappear?' The answer is no. Swift writes as if he is about to emerge from the blizzard and tell everyone how he did it. A shape shifter with a heart for Canada. Swift is one to recall, savour, and watch."

—The Globe and Mail, March 2005


"One of Swift's endearing qualities is that he pays as much attention to the small people in his life, as he does to his mentors and great artists.... Swift's best poems are restrained, tight-lipped and tempered, yet full of sombre and subtle allusion."

—Books in Canada, Feb. 2005

"Infused with pop culture, Western Europe ... the poems move with their energetic author. Blog-worthy... "

—This Magazine, Jan-Feb 2005



"Musicality hardly begins to describe this rather colossal collection.... "

— Vallum , Fall-Winter 200