Fritz Swanson is a writer, teacher and printer.
BRIEF BIO:
Fritz lives in Manchester, Michigan with his wife Sara and his children Oscar and Abigail. He teaches at the University of Michigan, and he runs a letterpress studio. He studied Fiction and Non-Fiction writing at the University of Michigan where he earned his Bachelor's in English with Honors in 1999 and his MFA in 2001.
Fritz's writing has appeared in The Believer, Best American Fantasy, McSweeney's, Mid-American Review, Esopus, Spork, LSA Magazine, Library Hi Tech, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, and Pindeldyboz.
He recently finished the non-fiction book Jewish Women in the Arts of Metro Detroit. In addition to writing, he is one of the principal designers of the online educational game Bibliobouts which teaches academic library research to undergraduates.
He teaches creative writing, essay writing, and literature.
PUBLICATIONS:
BOOKS
| Jewish Women in the Arts of Detroit, a history. The Committee for Jewish Women in the Arts of Detroit. Fall 2010. | Read It | Buy at Lulu |
FICTION, SHORT
| “Serapis” a short story in the January 6th, 2011 issue of Brain Harvest. | Read It | Buy It |
| “The Fish” Appearing in Abe’s Peanut, July 2010 | Read It | Buy It |
| “Four Household Tales (as told by the Giant Squid)” Appearing in the spring issue of Shimmer, 2010 | Read It | Buy It |
| “For the Love of Paul Bunyan” story anthologized in 2006 Best American Fantasy. Spring 07 | Read It | {Buy at Amazon
} |
| “For the Love of Paul Bunyan” story in Pindeldyboz. Spring 06 | Read It | Buy It |
| “The War is Won” story in Sound Magazine #5. Fall 04 | Read It | Buy It |
| "The Floating City" story in Spork, Issue 3, Winter 02 | Read It | Buy It |
| “Slow” story in Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly, Issue 6, Spring 01 | Read It | {McSweeney's #6: We Now Know Who
Buy at Amazon} |
| "The Fire Eater" story in the Michigan Daily Literary Supplement, March 13th, 97 | Read It | Buy It |
| “Adventures of the Giant Squid” a weekly serial published on Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k) 00-Present (readership now approaching 6,000 souls daily) | Read The New Episode! | Buy It |
NON-FICTION, SHORT
| “The Last Man for the Job”, The Believer, Nov/Dec 2011. | Read Excerpt | Buy It |
| “An Improbable History: How Michigan's Boy Governor, Stevens T. Mason, helped found the University of Michigan.”, LSA MAGAZINE, Fall 2011. | Read It (pdf) | Buy It |
| “Micro-Interview with Lovecraft Scholar S.T. Joshi”, The Believer, February 2011. | Read Excerpt | Buy It |
| “A Piece of History” article in LSA Magazine, Fall 2010 | Read It (pdf) | Buy It |
| “Secrets of a lake's amber depths” nature writing in The Christian Science Monitor, June 30, 2010 | Read It | Buy It |
| “On Monsters” The Super Issue, LSA Magazine, Spring 2010 | Read It | Buy It |
| “Can a Game Encourage Students Beyond Google?” The Super Issue, LSA Magazine, Spring 2010 | Read It | Buy It |
| "The Benefits of Integrating an Information Literacy Skills Game into Academic Coursework: A Preliminary Evaluation," by Karen Markey and 12 others." 2010. D-Lib Magazine 16, 7/8 (July-August 2010). | Read It | Buy It |
| “Profile of Neil Greenberg” The Super Issue, LSA Magazine, Spring 2010 | Read It | Buy It |
| “Will undergraduate students play games to learn how to conduct library research?” co-written with Karen Markey et al. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 2009 | Read It | Buy It |
| “Designing and testing a web-based board game for teaching information literacy skills and concepts.” co-written with Karen Markey et al. Library High Tech 26, 4: 663-681. 2008 | Read It | Buy It |
| “Engaging Undergraduates in Research through a Storytelling and Gaming Strategy: Final Report to the Delmas Foundation” co-written with Karen Markey et al. Delmas Foundation Grant Reports, Spring 08 | Read It | Buy It |
| “Building the Games Students Want to Play” co-written with Karen Markey et al. IMLS Grant Reports | Read Report One Read Report Two Read Report Three | Buy It |
| "The effectiveness of a web-based board game for teaching undergraduate students information literacy concepts and skills" by Karen Markey et al. 2008. D-Lib Magazine 14, 9/10. | Read It | Buy It |
| “The Way We All Get More.” profile of artist Jason Polan in Slash Magazine. Spring 07 | Read It | Buy It |
| “This is Neil Greenberg. Neil Draws Maps.” profile of artist Neil Greenberg in Esopus 8. Spring 07 | Read Excerpt | {Esopus 8
Buy at Amazon} |
| "The Invisible Girl" an essay published in The Mid-American Review, Spring 2005 | Read It | Buy It |
Illustrations by Jason Polan