Earl Swift began writing as a teen-ager for the now-defunct St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and spent three years in Alaska as a reporter for the now-defunct Anchorage Times. He moved to Norfolk's morning Virginian-Pilot and afternoon Ledger-Star in 1987 and remains a feature writer there, although the afternoon paper has since gone out of business. Swift's work has ranged from naval strategy to bridal fashions to Eskimo crime, and has won numerous national, regional and state awards. He was a Fulbright fellow to New Zealand in 1994.