Authors Answer: Jill Swenson
Authors Answer Q&A #622
Author interviews almost always focus on questions regarding an author’s latest publication (and that’s great because it’s how readers discover new books!) but sometimes it’s fun to ask authors to talk about their lives beyond the book they’ve just written. Authors Answer (started as a blog in 2020, moved onto Substack in 2025), is an attempt to give authors space to wax eloquent about the other influences on their writing. The questions posed here move beyond the formulaic classics like, “What books are on your nightstand?” or “What book inspired you to be a writer?” and even “You’re having a dinner party….which three authors (dead or alive) do you invite?” There are 20 standing questions. Authors pick FIVE that they want to answer.
Are you an author? Visit the Questions page to learn more about participating.
Today’s post features Jill Swenson.
Jill D Swenson grew up in the Twin Cities and moved to Wisconsin in high school. She graduated from Lawrence University and earned an MA and PhD from The University of Chicago. She taught journalism and media studies at the University of Georgia-Athens and earned tenure at Ithaca College.
For a decade she lived off the grid on a small-scale sustainable farm in upstate New York; and has spent the past fifteen years working as an editor and literary consultant.
Jill lives in Appleton, Wisconsin, where she belongs to the curling club, a poetry group and enjoys walking her dog.
Is there another profession you would like to try?
I’ve cooked Blue Plate specials at K-Mart, scooped 52 flavors of ice cream, gas jockeyed at a Shell Service Station, cut fabric at Jo-Anns, lifeguarded at a women’s pool in Saudi Arabia, worked as a production assistant on a Cheech and Chong movie and a researcher for Nightline, taught knitting at a yarn shop, earned tenure as a college journalism professor, lived off-the-grid as a farmer, made Christmas wreathes sold in NYC Green Market, and I’ve been a museum docent, maid, literary agent, flower shop owner, editor, and writer. Public historian is a profession I’m trying with my ongoing research reports on Substack expanding beyond the places and people in northern Minnesota featured in The Land of Everlasting Sky.
What’s your favorite comic strip or graphic novel?
Graphic memoirs, please. The genre was invented by Justin Green in 1972 with Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary. Justin Green and Carol Tyler were part of the underground comics scene and inspired both Art Spiegelman and R. L. Crumb. Carol Tyler’s The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief (October 2025 from Fantagraphics) is now my favorite graphic memoir. There is a great 2023 documentary directed by John Kinhart, “Married to Comics,” about the lives of Justin Green and Carol Tyler well worth watching
Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?
I’ve been a fiberista most of my adult life. Needlepoint, cross-stitch, crochet, knitting, felting, spinning. I’ve taken a lot of craft classes: basketmaking, beadwork, cyanotype and letterpress printing. I’m teaching a Swedish wheat weaving class this July at Folk School Warroad.
Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
There is a bronze sculpture that I love in City Park where I often walk my dog in Appleton Wisconsin. It’s called “Ring Dance” by Dallas Anderson and it depicts six children dancing in a circle. It’s at the center of the park and in the water fountain. In winter, the children are often seen with yarn-bombed hats on their heads and scarves around their neck. I feel the joy of play as a child every time I walk by it.
Is your go to comfort food sweet or savory? Is it something you make yourself? Does food inspire your writing?
Wild rice is my comfort food. Hand-harvested and grown in the wild, it is a special treat. It’s not actually rice at all but the seeds of a grass plant that grows in shallows waters of lakes and streams in northern Minnesota, where my mother grew up. While I think of wild rice as part of my family food traditions, it comes from Ojibway culture. According to spiritual prophecy, the Ojibway moved west where they would find food growing on water. They call it Manoomin. The word is related to Manitou, which means Creator or Great Spirit. Loosely translated, Manoomin means good berries.
Endnotes!
This newsletter is a passion project started by me, Elizabeth Rynecki, to try to help shine a light on new-to-me authors. I am also an author (and a documentary filmmaker and podcaster) and if you want to learn more about me, you can visit my website or read my personal newsletter, Ink Trails: A Chronicle in Creativity.
I’ve never made Authors Answer specific social media accounts, but you can find me on Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.