His published novels are In the Drift (an Ace Special, 1985), a look at the results of a more catastrophic Three Mile Island incident; Vacuum Flowers (1987), an adventurous tour of an inhabited Solar System, where the people of Earth have been subsumed by a cybernetic mass-mind; Stations of the Tide (1991), the story of a bureaucrat's pursuit of a magician on a world soon to be altered by its 50 year tide swell; The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), a fantasy with elves in Armani suits and dragons as jet fighters; Jack Faust (1997), a retelling of the Faust legend with modern science and technology; Bones of the Earth (2002), a time-travel story involving dinosaurs; and The Dragons of Babel (2008), which is set in the same fantasy world as The Iron Dragon's Daughter.

His short fiction has been collected in Gravity's Angels (1991), Moon Dogs (2000), Tales of Old Earth (2000), Cigar-Box Faust and Other Miniatures (2003), The Dog Said Bow-Wow (2007), and The Best of Michael Swanwick (2008). A novella, Griffin's Egg, was published in book form in 1991 and is also collected in Moon Dogs. He has collaborated with other authors on several short works, including Gardner Dozois ("Ancestral Voices", "City of God", "Snow Job") and William Gibson ("Dogfight").

Stations of the Tide won the Nebula for best novel in 1991, and several of his shorter works have won awards as well: the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for "The Edge of the World" in 1989, the World Fantasy Award for "Radio Waves" in 1996, and Hugos for "The Very Pulse of the Machine" in 1999, "Scherzo with Tyrannosaur" in 2000, "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" in 2002, "Slow Life" in 2003, and "Legions in Time" in 2004.

Swanwick has written about the field as well. He published two long essays on the state of the science fiction (The User's Guide to the Postmoderns, 1986) and fantasy ("In the Tradition...", 1994), the former of which was controversial for its categorization of new SF writers into "cyberpunk" and "literary humanist" camps. Both essays were collected together in The Postmodern Archipelago 1997. A book-length interview with Gardner Dozois, Being Gardner Dozois, was published in 2001. He is a prolific contributor to the New York Review of Science Fiction. Swanwick wrote a monograph on James Branch Cabell, "What Can Be Saved From the Wreckage?" which was published in 2007, and a short literary biography of Hope Mirrlees, Hope-in-the-Mist, which was published in 2009.

(a complete bibliography may be found at the author's website)

Novels

• In the Drift (1984)
• Vacuum Flowers (1987)
• Stations of the Tide (1991), Nebula Award winner, 1991; Hugo and Campbell Awards nominee, 1992; Clarke Award nominee, 1993
• The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), Clarke, Locus Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 1994
• Jack Faust (1997), BSFA nominee, 1997; Hugo and Locus Fantasy Awards nominee, 1998
• Bones of the Earth (2002), Nebula Award nominee, 2002; Hugo, Locus SF, and Campbell Awards nominee, 2003
• The Dragons of Babel (2008), Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 2009<

Collections

• Gravity's Angels (1991)
• A Geography of Unknown Lands (1997)
• Moon Dogs (2000)
• Puck Aleshire's Abecedary (2000)
• Tales of Old Earth (2000)
• Cigar-Box Faust and Other Miniatures (2003)
• Michael Swanwick's Field Guide to the Mesozoic Megafauna (2004)
• The Periodic Table of Science Fiction (2005)
• The Dog Said Bow-Wow (2007)
• The Best of Michael Swanwick (2008)

Selected short stories

• "The Gods of Mars" (1985) (with Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann)
• "Dogfight" (1985) (with William Gibson)
• "The Edge of the World" (1989)
• "Griffin's Egg" (1991)
• "The Dead" (1996)
• "The Very Pulse of the Machine" (1998) (Hugo Award winner)
• "Radiant Doors" (1999) (Nebula Award nominee)
• "Ancient Engines" (1999) (Nebula Award nominee)
• "Scherzo with Tyrannosaur" (1999) (Hugo Award winner)
• "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" (2001) (Hugo Award winner)
• "Slow Life" (2002) (Hugo Award winner)
• "'Hello,' Said the Stick" (2002) (Hugo Award nominee)
• "Legions in Time" (2003) (Hugo Award winner)
• "Tin Marsh" (2006)
• "Urdumheim" (2007)

Essays

• "User's Guide to the Postmoderns", Asimov's, 1986
• "The Postmodern Archipelago" (1997)