Joan Sween

The first thing I ever wrote for public consumption was a puppet play titled "The Witch's Revenge." Although I was only in the fourth grade, I experienced the agony of trying to write it right and re-writing and re-writing and re-writing. These early agonies made me resiliant. Think rubber ball.

In my pre-teen years I wrote short stories about fairies and learned to play the piano accordian. My father was a construction engineer; we moved a lot. The accordian was easier to move than a piano. As a teenager I was in the class plays and wrote pep skits. Pep skits taught me about formula writing–our team always had to trounce the opponents. In college I was in a lot of plays, wrote poetry, edited the college newspaper, and got engaged 16 times.

I have an MFA in theatre and English. I’m a former member of Sisters In Crime and former Regional Vice-president of Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas. I’m the founder of the Rochester Playwright Festival and Minnesota Writers’ Alliance. I direct community theatre and write—novels, plays, humor columns. I live with two cats who are exasperating and a husband who remains exciting and interesting after many years of marriage.

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