Mitch Swenson is an American author, war reporter, screenwriter, and game designer.

Journalism

Swenson started reporting in 2011 while studying journalism at the American University in Cairo. In 2013, Swenson, David Axe, and another journalist, snuck into northern Syria through

Reyhanlı Reyhanlı (; , ''ar-Rayḥānīyah'') is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Hatay Province, Turkey. Its area is 367 km2, and its population is 108,092 (2022). It is near the country's Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

to report on the Syrian Civil War. Afterward, Swenson called the conflict an, "all-consuming, merciless and heart-eating machine of war." In 2014, he graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

with a major in

Creative Nonfiction Creative nonfiction (also known as literary nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, literary journalism or verfabula) is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts ...

. In 2016, Swenson reported on the ancient Russian martial art of Systema for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''.

1,000 Days of Syria

In 2014, Swenson created 1000 Days of Syria, an

electronic literature Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature where digital capabilities such as interactivity, multimodality or Generative literature, algorithmic text generation are used aesthetically. Works of electronic literature ar ...

newsgame based on his journalism work in Syria and the rest of the

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

. He said he was inspired to make the game after he found that Syria was some way down on the popular news agenda. "I heard that nine times as many people clicked on links to do with Miley Cyrus than the war," he told ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. "When you consider what would have been more impactful, I think going to war has far greater consequence than a salacious performance by a pop star." In general, the game was received positively by critics and was an official selection at both the 2014 Indie Prize Showcase and the 2014 Meaningful Play Conference.

Author

In 2013, Swenson's true-story novella, '' The Tracking of a Russian Spy'', was published by Thought Catalog as an ebook. Upon release, the work was optioned for film by

StudioCanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., and Canal+ Production and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film & television production and distribution company which is a ...

and The Picture Company. In 2016, Swenson published an extended version of the book, which included other true stories. Logan Lerman is set to play Swenson in the film adaptation of '' The Tracking of a Russian Spy''.

Bibliography

*Mitch Swenson & Paris Ionescu (2012). ''I Will Probably Sleep Through Your Internet Party.'' Pas de Terre Press. *Mitch Swenson (2016). ''The Tracking of a Russian Spy & Other True Stories of Sex and Seclusion''. Thought Catalog Books. *Mitch Swenson & Louis Heilbronn (2017). ''The Missing: Volumes I-III''. Wildebeest Books.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swenson, Mitch Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American male writers American war correspondents American electronic literature writers