Mary Swander

{{short description|American author (born 1950)}} {{Independent sources|date=December 2025}} {{Infobox person |birth_date={{Birth date and age|1950|11|05|mf=yes}} |occupation=Writer }} '''Mary Swander''' (born November 5, 1950) is an American writer of drama, poetry and nonfiction.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://maryswander.com/about/ | title=Mary Swander}}</ref> She holds dual citizenship in Ireland and the United States. Born in Carroll, Iowa and raised in Manning, Iowa,<ref>{{Citation|url=https://carrollspaper.com/news/with-manning-sensibilities-former-iowa-poet-laureate-finds-podcast-voice/article_b4da5060-4ab0-11eb-819a-3b422dd65568.html | title=With Manning sensibilities, former Iowa poet laureate finds podcast voice| date=30 December 2020}}</ref> her ancestors immigrated to the United States during the Great Famine of Ireland. Swander taught for a decade on the island of Inishbofin, County Galway.<ref>{{cite web |title=2022 Iowa Women's Hall of Fame Honoree: Mary Swander {{!}} Iowa Department of Human Rights |url=https://humanrights.iowa.gov/2022-iowa-womens-hall-fame-honoree-mary-swander |website=humanrights.iowa.gov |access-date=27 September 2022}}</ref>

Swander has published books of poetry and nonfiction as well as essays, magazine articles, individual poems and radio commentaries including in National Public Radio, The Nation, The New York Times Magazine, and Poetry Magazine.{{citation needed|date=December 2025}} She is best known for her poetry book ''Driving the Body Back'' and for her memoirs ''Out of this World'' and ''The Desert Pilgrim''. Other books include three books of poetry, ''Heaven-and-Earth House'', ''Driving the Body Back'', and ''Succession''.<ref name="poetryfound">{{cite web |title=Mary Swander |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-swander |website=The Poetry Foundation |access-date=2 August 2022}}</ref> She served as the Poet Laureate of Iowa from 2009 to 2019.<ref name="lociowa">{{ cite web |url=https://guides.loc.gov/united-states-state-poets-laureate/hawaii-maryland#s-lib-ctab-28174969-4|title=Iowa|website=Library of Congress}}</ref>

Swander has also co-authored a musical, ''Dear Iowa'', with composer Christopher Frank, which has been produced across the Midwest and on Iowa Public Television.{{citation needed|date=December 2025}}

Her awards include a Whiting Award, a National Endowment for the Arts grant for the Literary Arts, the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, and the Nation-Discovery Award. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, she is a Distinguished Professor of English at Iowa State University. Swander has written ekphrastic poetry for University Museums' poetry collection inspired by the Art on Campus Collection at Iowa State University.<ref>{{Citation| last1=Patton| first1=Caitlin|url=https://universitymuseums.pubpub.org/pub/1yp6k85l/release/2 | title=Art on Campus Poetry, Mary Swander| work=University Museums, Iowa State University| date=29 January 2025}}</ref> With an endowment from the Iowa Arts Council granted in 2009, she started a poetry website for Iowans called "The Iowa Literary Community".

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[https://maryswander.com/ Official homepage]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swander, Mary}} Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Iowa State University faculty Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Category:Poets laureate of Iowa Category:20th-century American poets