ABOUT
Eugénie Szwalek (they/them) is a queer creator who enjoys writing across genres but has a soft spot for speculative fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy. Their story "Dirt Retreat" is out now in Issue 20 of Fusion Fragment and their short story "Giant-Seers" is featured in Issue 05 of Block Party Magazine.
A member of the Meet the Presses collective and a First Reader for Augur Magazine, they are always looking for
new opportunities to get involved with small presses, literary festivals, and chapbook making. They are a graduate of Sheridan College's Creative Writing & Publishing program.
They are currently based out of Mississauga, in the Traditional Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and The Huron-Wendat and Wyandot Nations. They live with three fantastic roommates,
a handful of houseplants they've managed to keep alive despite constant neglect, and a lot of weird but wonderful wall art.
Professional Philosophy
I love creating. I want to create a whole bunch of stuff. Gay stuff, weird stuff, stuff that will make you cry at the same time as it makes you laugh. Stuff that makes you look at the world just a little differently.
Most of all, I want to create things that are fun.
My biggest goal in writing is to write stories I want to read, stories that I didn't have growing up. I am my number one audience, but it's always nice when other people find joy in what I make as well. I love playing around with perspective and interweaving storylines, creating interesting worlds and magic systems and figuring out how these things shape and influence the characters living within them.
Everything I write is super queer because representation saves lives. As a trans, non-binary person, I know how important it is to see yourself represented in the stories you love. As important as historical accounts of queer resilience and coming-out stories are, that's not what I write. I write queer joy, queer weirdness, casual queerness, because representation deserves to come in every form.
I gravitate towards writing in the speculative, sci-fi, and fantasy genres, but I also have a great love for profile writing. Whether I'm writing about real people or people you only vaguely remember from your dreams, I bring the same level of care to every sentence. My love for sentences was first sparked by
Ray Bradbury and further stoked by writers like Ursula K. Le Guin, Ocean Vuong, and Cherie Dimaline. My love for the weird, wonderful, and dark is kept alive by creators like Neil Gaiman and
V. E. Schwab.
Though I write primarily for adults, I try to infuse my words with that sense of wonder and whimsy so often reserved for children. Growing up should not mean letting go of the things that bring you joy.
Fun should not come at the expense of heart, care, or craft.
Have fun. Be weird. Read widely.