Merlyn Swan grew up in Sri Lanka. In her early twenties she joined Columbo Broadcasting Corporation as an announcer and contributed articles to the Times of Ceylon. In 1952 she was selected, under the Columbo Plan, to travel to England for training with the British Broadcasting Corporation. She returned to Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then known) to continue her work for radio; then in 1960 she was invited to join the B.B.C. in London where she worked for twelve years.
In the 1970s Swan migrated to Australia with the intention of pursuing postgraduate studies at the University of Sydney. In Sydney Swan worked for the ABC as producer of 'The Coming Out Show' and became involved in teaching at TAFE.
In the 1990s Swan was instrumental in organising the Eastern Suburbs Poetry Group and has published a collection of her poems as well as autobiographical narrative. [Source: 'What Was the Power That Guided...?' in Celebrations : Fifty Years of Sri-Lanka-Australia Interactions, pp. 135-138.
