Bio

Michele at her book-launch party for Conversations During Sleep, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, New York City, May 20, 1998

Michele Wolf was raised in South Florida, spent many years in New York, and since 2001 has lived in Maryland outside Washington, D.C. An editor, writer, and teacher, she holds degrees from Boston University and Columbia. Her most recent poetry book, Immersion (2011), was selected by Denise Duhamel for the Hilary Tham Capital Collection, published by The Word Works. Her previous books are Conversations During Sleep (1998, Anhinga Press), winner of the Anhinga Prize for Poetry, judged by Peter Meinke, and The Keeper of Light (1995, Painted Bride Quarterly  Poetry Chapbook Series), judged by J.T. Barbarese.

Her poems have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies, including The Southern Review, The Hudson Review, Poetry, Boulevard, North American Review, and The Antioch Review. She has written articles, essays, and reviews for Smithsonian, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, and many other publications. A former contributing editor for Poet Lore and Kirkus Reviews, she has received a Maryland State Arts Council literary arts Independent Artist Award (2022). Among her other honors are an Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award and fellowships from Yaddo, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Maryland. She has also served on the administrative staff of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, where she was a National Arts Club Scholar in Poetry.

Michele has been a featured poet or guest lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, American University, Hood College, the University of New Mexico, Florida State University, California State University, Long Beach and elsewhere. Since 2002 she has taught at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland. She has given well over a hundred readings—at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, the Miami Book Fair, the Spoleto Festival USA, the Los Angeles Poetry Festival, the Library of Congress, and bookstores, arts centers, and other venues nationwide. Her poetry papers will be part of the Washington Writers’ Archive housed at The George Washington University’s Gelman Library. She lives with her husband and daughter in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

• Read Michele's bio and poems on the Poetry Foundation's website »here.
• Read an interview with Michele when she was the featured poet in the Hood College Community Reading Series »here.
• Read a profile of Michele »here.
• Read Michele’s piece “Poetry Readings: The Art of Creating a Poet-Audience Bond” on The Writer’s Center’s blog, First Person Plural, »here.

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