Cynthia Swanson:
Denver's Storyteller

Beneath Cheesman Park lies a dark secret that many Denverites walk over without awareness. In 1893, the city converted an old cemetery into green space. The exhumation process was gruesome and ultimately abandoned. An estimated 2,000 bodies remain buried under that grass—a haunting of Denver’s past that became the foundation for Cynthia Swanson’s 2024 novel “Anyone But Her.” The mother-daughter narrative, set partly in 1979 and partly in 2004, has already earned multiple honors, including the Colorado Book Award in the thriller category. It’s proof that some of the most interesting stories exist right in your own backyard, waiting for someone patient enough to look closely.

A Winding Path to Writing

Swanson wanted to write from childhood, but life took a meandering route. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she studied architecture for two years before realizing her true calling lay elsewhere. She switched schools and majors, earning an English degree instead. What followed was a practical decade and a half of technical writing and marketing work—solid, work that paid bills and taught her the craft. Then came marriage, then children arriving later life than she’d anticipated. Rather than resent the pause, Swanson made peace with it.

“When they’re little, they just kind of suck all that creativity out of you,” she says.

But she made herself a quiet promise: when something felt like it had genuine potential, she would be ready to write. That moment arrived when her twins were 6 and her youngest was 3. The concept for “The Bookseller” appeared fully formed in her imagination: a novel set in 1960s Denver, built around a small bookstore on Old South Pearl Street.

During research, she discovered the story of Denver’s streetcar system. For decades, the streetcar ran down Broadway but veered onto Pearl Street to serve businesses there. In the late 1950s, when Denver switched to buses, they eliminated that veer. The businesses along Pearl suffered. That economic stress became exactly what her protagonist needed. The book was sold to HarperCollins on a preempt deal and hit shelves in 2015 to significant acclaim. She’d accomplished a childhood dream at 50 years old.

Finding Stories in the Streets

Swanson’s work is distinctive not just because she writes about Denver, but because of how she writes about Denver. Like a loving detective, she pays attention to details that reveal character, history, and consequence. She wasn’t born here—she moved to Boulder in 1993, then to Denver in 2000, eventually settling in South Denver. Most people are surprised to learn she’s not a native, but Swanson sees that as an advantage.

“It’s really about sort of the research and making sure that anything I’m writing has that strong sense of place,” she explains.

Non-natives have to earn their way into understanding a city. They can’t rely on assumption. They have to ask questions, walk neighborhoods with intention, talk to longtime residents, dig into archives. All that effort creates authenticity. This methodology shaped all four of her published books, three of which are set in Denver. After “The Bookseller” and “The Glass Forest” came her most Denver-centric work: “Denver Noir.” When Brooklyn-based publisher Akashic Books came calling during the pandemic, they needed someone to fill a gap—they’d published more than 120 noir anthologies set in cities worldwide, but Denver remained absent.

She said yes immediately. Working remotely during lockdown, she curated a collection of 14 Colorado authors for the anthology that launched in May 2022. Her own contribution? A Cheesman Park ghost story rooted in those 2,000 buried bodies.

Hollywood and Hard Choices

As literary acclaim spread, Hollywood came calling. Julia Roberts’ production company, Red Om Films, optioned the film rights to “The Bookseller”—the sort of accomplishment many writers fantasize about. But Swanson learned something that separates working writers from dreamers: She learned not to hold her breath. The book business moves really slow, she likes to say, but the movie business moves even slower.

Her agent offered wisdom that stuck with her: “Your book has been made into a movie when you’re sitting in the movie theater eating your popcorn. Until then, anything can happen.” The option continues to renew, and she remains grateful, having moved on to other passion projects.

More recent success came with “Anyone But Her” in 2024, but it required Swanson to chart an unfamiliar path. When her publisher’s imprint folded less than a year after its release, she found herself without publisher support or agent interest. Rather than wait indefinitely, she made a bold decision: she self-published “Anyone But Her.”

“I really believe in this book,” she thought at the time. “I just want to self-publish it and see what happens.”

Self-publishing required navigating production, cover design, editing, and marketing—all the infrastructure a traditional publisher normally handles. But Swanson had advantages most early-career writers don’t possess: contacts in the literary world, relationships with booksellers and librarians, and an understanding of how the industry works. She handled the print and e-book editions herself while landing a traditional deal for audio rights through her agent. When “Anyone But Her” won the Colorado Book Award in 2025, it validated what she already knew: She’d made the right choice betting on the book herself.

The Writer’s Process

When asked what’s hardest about writing novels, Swanson doesn’t hesitate: first drafts. She struggles through blank pages and the nagging sense that nothing is working yet. But she’s developed a methodology that keeps her moving forward. She deliberately delays deep research until the second draft, which is a psychological trick to outsmart her perfectionism.

“It’s like dangling a carrot on a stick,” she explains. “I love research. It’s my favorite part.”

This methodology has led to discoveries that fundamentally altered her stories, such as the streetcar revelation and the Cheesman Park exhumation. During research for “Anyone But Her,” she visited East High School to understand the setting. Someone mentioned that the locked clock tower had once been an open storage space and a favorite teenage make out spot. That detail made it into the book. These are the stories that bring authenticity to fiction—not what you can research online, but what you learn in conversation with locals who know the place deeply.

Swanson also manages her creative energy with intention. She jealously protects her mornings because that’s when her mind is sharpest for writing. Afternoons are for walking, thinking, and connecting with others. She meets with a couple of writers every other Thursday at a coffee shop. Better still is a trip to the mountains, where she and her husband own a quiet condo.

“Being able to go up there by myself and not have anybody around is really, really helpful,” she says. “A couple of days alone, writing without interruption. That’s the reset button.”

Building Community

A hallmark of Swanson’s career is that she built it entirely in Denver. Rather than chase New York or California, she’s used her success to strengthen the local community. She’s been involved with Lighthouse Writers Workshop since the late 1990s, a thriving nonprofit offering workshops, classes, an annual Lit Fest and specialized programs for underrepresented writers. She teaches occasionally—always one-off classes, a deliberate choice born from protecting her writing time.

“I know a lot of writers who can combine teaching with writing,” she explains, “but I find that if I was trying to spend too much time teaching, it would be hard to also write.”

She’s also involved in Sisters in Crime and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. Beyond workshops, she does significant editing and ghostwriting work with other authors. This is work she views not as distraction but as part of the same ecosystem. It’s this spirit of mutual growth that animates all her community work.

“Denver has such a good literary scene now,” she observes. “We have so many recognized Denver writers nationally, which is very cool.”

She’s part of that shift. Not just through her own published work, but through the writers she mentors, the anthologies she edits, and the communities she supports.

Looking to the Future

Swanson is juggling multiple projects: a short-story collection and another novel. She’ll stick to the principles that have guided her: keep writing, keep researching, and stay curious. And don’t give up if life gets in the way.

“I was 50 when ‘The Bookseller’ was published,” she reminds people. “I did not expect it would be that late in life. It’s one of those don’t-give-up stories. It was the right time.”

That message is aimed at everyone who’s ever dreamed of writing but felt it was too late. Swanson’s career is proof that the timing of success matters far less than the persistence of passion.

Seth Davis is the editor of MyDenver magazine. 

Photograph by Glenda Cebrian Photography