In the 1980s, he worked for the CBC, where he interviewed and produced 60-minute radio features on Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, Earle Birney, John Robert Colombo, Al Purdy, Gwendolyn MacEwen, and other leading Canadian figures.
He received a Canada Council grant to research and write The Toronto Islands (1983), a best-selling (Source: Dreadnaught Press publisher, 1983) illustrated history of a unique community, from prehistoric times to the present.
A Fulbright Scholar and Guggenheim Fellow, he was chosen by Lucille Clifton to receive a Villa Montalvo Literary Arts Award and was the author of 30 books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction.
Sward later worked as technical writer and editor for Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), and served as "bridge person" between traditional hard copy academic periodicals and literary eZines.
[3] The preceding Poets Laureate included Gary Young, David Swanger and Ellen Bass[4] In 2020 Sward received a Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN Oakland.
The Carleton Miscellany reviewed the book saying, "In the animal poems there is a bravery in the face of our limitations, a warmth for our absurdities, a way of life to be gleaned from our failings and ineptitudes... a self-critique that turns our freakishness into an ironic source of fulfillment and transcendence."
Animated videos of these works (mini-movies with poetry) employ avatars, digital representations of the poet and his subjects, and appear in DVD format and online at Blue's Cruzio Cafe.
Source: Robert Sward: Poetry, Review & Interview with Jack Foley, Recorded for KPFA-FM Berkeley, CA with readings from Heavenly Sex & Rosicrucian in the Basement (2002), Uncle Dog Audio, Number 1002 (2002), and The Collected Poems, Black Moss Press,1957–2004 (2004).