Fritz Swanson

I teach writing, letterpress printing and a little book history at the University of Michigan.

I am the co-founder of The Printing Stewards, a non-profit dedicated to preserving the metal type printing tradition. I am also co-founder of The Index, a quarterly letterpress poetry experience.

If you want to support the work I'm doing, you can subscribe to The Index or become a supporter of The Printing Stewards. Or both!

Some of the Things I have Written:

A story about Sitting Bull called "Slow" and TMBG wrote music to go with it. (McSweeney's Issue 6)
A rough calculation of how fast people used to set type, and how it compares to novice typesetters today.
A long-form panic attack for THE BELIEVER about typography called "The Last Man for the Job". You can read it in prose, or get it as a short audiobook.
I remembered Tom Trumble, a letterpress printer, for PRINT MAGAZINE.
A murder mystery, where the mystery is trains and Walt Whitman and photosynthesis, written as an essay for True Story. You can get it as a Kindle Book. There is also a Spotify Playlist that goes with the essay.
An interview with Independent Scholar S.T. Joshi about H.P. Lovecraft.
I wooed my wife with this story about Paul Bunyan. There is also an audio version.
My son, Oscar, has starred in many of my essays, like this one from The Christian Science Monitor. Or this one about a bear.
A story about a A Floating City.
A story about George Washington's slaves.
A poster called "A History of A" about the history of the alphabet.
How Michigan's 19 year old first governor founded the University of Michigan amidst the financial crisis of 1837.

Things I do, or did:

The Manchester Mirror
Wolverine Press
Poor Mojo's Almanac(k)

Things people say about me:

Staff Stories Umich Profile
Michigan Radio Profile
Umich Record Profile
Creative Non-Fiction Interview about "A Dirge for the Doubly Dead"

My social:

Instagram
Twitter
Facebook/WolverinePress

I'm Tired

Recently I was asked to memorialize my friend Jason Polan:


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