Susan Swan

Susan Swan is a Canadian novelist and nonfiction writer, as well as a professor emerita at York University and a recipient of the Order of Canada. Her work frequently explores themes of feminism, identity, and the constraints placed on women, and she has published both fiction and memoir over several decades.

Her memoir Big Girls Don’t Cry: A Memoir About Taking Up Space (HarperCollins Canada; Beacon Press, US, 2025) examines how her unusual height and “Amazonian” size have shaped her life and became a lens for understanding women’s expectations across generations. In the book, Swan reflects on defying conventional ideas of femininity and taking up space as a woman, mother, artist, and feminist, building on a career that already includes acclaimed novels such as The Wives of Bath and The Biggest Modern Woman of the World.