Rebecca Swift

Rebecca Margaret Swift was born in Highbury, north London, the daughter of Clive Swift and Margaret Drabble.[1][4] Her brothers are Adam Swift and Joe Swift.[1][2]

As a student, Swift attended the Camden School for Girls and New College, Oxford.[1][2]

From 1989 to 1995, she worked as a junior editor at Virago Press.[2] She was fired after Virago was purchased by Little, Brown and Company.[4] In 1992 and 1995, she published Letters from Margaret: The Fascinating Story of Two Babies Swapped at Birth, and Imagining Characters, respectively.[2] She co-founded The Literary Consultancy, an editing company, in 1996 with Hannah Griffiths.[1][2] The Literary Consultancy has helped many writers, including Prue Leith, Neamat Imam, and Jennifer Makumbi.[1][3] In 2009, The Literary Consultancy became a founding member of the Free Word Centre.[2]

In 1999, Swift wrote "Are You Reading Me?" for her master's thesis at the Tavistock Clinic.[2] In 2001, she organised a bursary scheme to provide for free editing services to low-income writers.[1] In 2011, she published Dickinson: Poetic Lives, a biography of Emily Dickinson.[3] In 2012, she organised the first digital conference for writers in the United Kingdom, "Writing in a Digital Age" at the Free Word Centre.[2][3][4] The conference discussed the current publishing landscape, including self-publishing.[2]

Swift died of cancer on 18 April 2017, at the age of 53.[1][2][3]

In her honour, the Rebecca Swift Foundation was formed.[5] In June 2018, it announced the Women Poets' Prize, to be awarded biennially to three poets, at the Second Home Poetry Festival.[5][6] It will also provide support to winning poets, in partnership with affiliated organisations.[5]