Colleen Michaels

“Here is why I love my job: It is not uncommon to have a day where I get to battle Beowulf with an illustrator, debate the structure of a sentence with a sculptor, and help a photographer develop a poem. It is quite a pleasure to help our students to see the connection between the visual arts and the written word and to foster the practice of expression.”Colleen Michaels joined the Montserrat community in 2001, and she directs the Writing Studio and teaches in the Liberal Arts department. She is the author of Prize Wheel (Small Bites Press, 2023). Her poems have appeared in journals and anthologies including Passages North, Nixes Mate, The Paterson Review, Cider Press Review, Barrelhouse, Modern Grimmoire: Contemporary Fairy Tales, Fables and Folklore (Indigo Ink Press), and Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Work Space (Lost Horse Press). Her work has been commissioned as poetry installations for The Massachusetts Poetry Festival, The Peabody Essex Museum, and The Trustees of Reservations. She is the creator and host of the Improbable Places Poetry Tour, which brings poetry to unlikely places like tattoo parlors, laundromats, and swimming pools. Yes, in the swimming pool. She serves on the board of trustees for the Beverly Public Library.

Website:
colleenmichaelspoetry.com

Education: 

B.A. English, State University of New York at Buffalo; M.A., English, State University of New York at Fredonia