Fiona Smyth was born in Montreal in 1964. She began drawing as early as she can remember. Her parents would bring home reams of used paper from their work or studies, and she and her two younger sisters would draw and paint on them. As a child, Fiona enjoyed astronomy, archaeology, and art. Art stuck.

Some of her favorite books while growing up were THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, RUMBLE FISH, and DUNE. She also read Mad Magazine, and Asterix and Obelix.

In 1978, Fiona’s family moved from Montreal to Toronto. She went from a private girls’ school in Montreal to the high school art program at Central Technical Collegiate in Toronto. She then went to OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) where she studied printmaking and painting. Her parents were very supportive of her art career.

Fiona’s advice to young creators is to create their own projects; give themselves a platform to shout from.

Fiona’s partner Craig Daniels is a musician. They share the same struggles of creators with little money, but both are prolific regardless of available funding. They used to have two tuxedo cats, Eddie and Boner, who greatly influenced Loly in THE NEVER WERES. They plan on owning a hypoallergenic dog some day.

Fiona’s favorite pastime is collecting the works of the Psychedoolic (coined by Canadian comics genius Marc Bell) movement: drawings found in comics, posters, and most importantly zines! The music Fiona listens to is whatever Craig has put on her iPod: 80’s hip hop to current garage punk, 60’s psyche to Bollywood. She loves movies. A recent favorite is the Swedish film Let the Right One In. Fiona’s 88-year-old landlord recently taught her how to play chess, and now she’s hooked.

Fiona’s future plans are to work on a new graphic novel about squatters on another planet, and to have an art show about rampaging monster teenagers entitled The Maul (funded by the Toronto Arts Council).

Books by Fiona Smyth

Sex is a Funny Word: A Book about Bodies, Feelings, and YOU

by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth