"Alison, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing your thoughts on the 'Nature As Muse' panel, and hearing you read from your work. It was a particular joy to hear the poems. Remember the last one you read? It had that wonderful image of the seeds dropping off your clothes. I’d love a copy of it if you have a moment." – Jan Worth-Nelson, author of Night Blind

Alison Swan's poems and prose have appeared in many publications, including the Michigan Quarterly Review, TriQuarterly, The Bellingham Review, Dunes Review, and Willow Springs. In the fall of 2011, Alice Greene & Co. published her first poetry chapbook Dog Heart–a fine-art collaboration with Jean Buescher Bartlett and Melanie Boyle. Fresh Water:  Women Writing on the Great Lakes (Michigan State University Press), Alison Swan's brain child and labor of love, is a 2007 Library of Michigan Notable Book. Among her other awards are a Mesa Refuge Writing Fellowship and the Michigan Environmental Council's Petoskey Prize for Grassroots Leadership. Her poem Porch Swing (Bloodroot Press, 1997), another collaboration with book artist Jean Buescher Bartlett, has been acquired by the New York Public Library and other rare book collections.

An inspiring  speaker and writing workshop leader, Alison Swan holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan and teaches Environmental Studies at Western Michigan University. She has been active in efforts to protect and preserve the Saugatuck Dunes on the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan since 2001.

Click here for interviews, and here for Alison Swan's blog.