Last night, I felt like I had been infected… …by the panic. I started to sweat. I started to wonder what chaos is on its way and what it’s going to look like. The virus is coming for us. There’s a wave about to fold over Beijing and we will be trapped here under it, suffocating. How do I get…   …read more.

Jan 31st, 2020 I have received so many worried messages from friends that I thought perhaps a proper blog was in order. I’ll give you a glimpse of my life here in Beijing especially now that the Corona Virus (capital letters intentional) has taken over as the omnipotent leader to whom all must bow… Okay, there it is. My opinion…   …read more.

I’m sitting alone at a table in a nearly deserted restaurant in a mall on Christmas Eve Day watching my kids play in a play area designed for toddlers. They’re innovating the toys and being too loud, but there’s almost no one here and I’m just watching them with an absence much like misty nostalgia, which is really just a…   …read more.

*This piece was also published in the Nov 2019 issue of Beijing Kids Magazine* ~ “Mommy, why don’t you take videos of us?” This is my son, skateboard tucked up under one arm in our compound’s courtyard, a look of curious judgment on his nearly-six-year-old face. His helmet is askew. His knees and elbows are bulging with protector pads, wispy…   …read more.

This post is the continuation of my recent June & July 2019 Newsletter’s Final Thought:   FINAL THOUGHT (Con’t) Since I last wrote to you all, lots has happened. Personally, that is. In retrospect, maybe that’s part of my disappearance from your inboxes; it’s not that I didn’t want to share what I was up to, professionally, but sometimes the…   …read more.

This excerpt appeared in “Asia Literary Review: No.32 Winter 2016” as well as in the Anthology entitled “Afterness: Literature from the New Transnational Asia” published in Hong Kong by After-Party Press in 2016: ***** STITCHES by Ember Swift   My mother-in-law, Wang Wei, has a key to our flat. She moved to Beijing when I was very pregnant with Echo,…   …read more.

My 4th European Tour has just come to an end and I’m writing this quick review from Prague just a day before we fly back to Beijing, China–our adopted home. I say “we” because I’ve been lucky enough to travel once again with the amazing Gabriel Beaudoin on guitar with whom to share stages and long walks in these many…   …read more.

This past fall, we started production on the new series of songs that will form my 13th release. By “we” I mean my team of musicians in Beijing with whom I am so grateful to have a working relationship. Also, I had some guest players for the first session, and I hope I have a chance to work with them…   …read more.

From February 13th, the FAI annual folk music conference will take place in Montreal, Quebec. It’s been 14 years since I’ve taken part in this conference and I’m so happy to report that I will be in attendance AND performing at the event. These kinds of conferences are amazing networking events. This one in particular features about 3000 participants, most…   …read more.

I came back from my third Euro tour on December 2nd and got sucked into the cyclone of kids and freelance work and a steady bed and pillow. During my decade (plus) on the road between 1997-2008, this is what I craved: Consistency. A solid home. A routine. A family. But recently, after resuming some bi-annual touring, I admit that…   …read more.