My features essay, “Art Heists for Art’s Sake,” is now up to kick off Issue 3 of the lovely UK literary journal, all the sins!

…the day I stood in front of that Breugel painting and talked poetry with my mother was a turning point for me. Since then, I’ve worked inspiration from other art forms into my creative writing, both poetry and prose, both consciously and unconsciously. Museums have also become my career, both as a museum educator and as a museum advocate. Fortunately, one creative practice informs the other in a rewarding cycle.

You can read the full article here.

Just a heads up to say I’m reading as part of the Improbable Places Poetry Tour this Sunday, September 18, at Green Meadows Farm, from 3-5 pm.  More details are available on facebook.

The theme is “Harvest/Moon,” and I’m looking forward to the combination of music, food, and celestial phrases!  Hope to see you there.

National Poetry Month is still more than a month away, but I’m already in planning mode. (Meanwhile, did you know February is Library Lover’s Month? Go hug your favorite librarian!)

‘Found poetry’ from old books! Playing with scale in literature and art! April is going to be awesome. (Photo by Nate Buchman, http://www.natebuchman.com/ for Emporium 32, http://emporium32.com/ Go check them out if you like the jewelry I’m wearing in this photo.)

I’m very pleased to announce that I’ll be leading three poetry workshops in April!  If you’re in the driving-distance-from-Boston area, I hope you’ll stop by and join me for some playing with words and art.

Something New, Something Strange: Found Poetry
April 7, 6:30 pm, Longfellow National Historic Site, Cambridge

In Longfellow’s poem “Keramos,” a potter at his wheel says, “All things must change/To Something new, to something strange.” Recombine, illustrate, and give shape to old forms using…

Have you ever described yourself as the sort of person who devours books? I have. I’ve also called myself a ‘cultural omnivore,’ since there are very few things in this world that I don’t find at least a little (or a lot) interesting.

But what if stories were someone’s actual sustenance? And what happens to the person who tells them?

I wondered, and then I wrote. And now you can read the resulting short fiction (for free!) over at the literary journal, Zetetic!

Read “The Storyvore” on Zetetic: A Record of Unusual Inquiry

Happy summer, all! In the wake of last week’s downright delightful Supreme Court decisions on health care and marriage equality, I have less-momentous but much more immediately personal good news; I have four poems that are being published this summer on Window Cat Press.

Window Cat is an online literary journal run by a fabulous trio of poet/artist/editors, who are dedicated to bringing the work of young & emerging poets, writers, and artists to the wider world. Their mission is to “seek to celebrate, inspire, innovate, and play.” About the poems that will appear there, they said:

“We were charmed by the interplay of light and color in Michele’s photographs and thrilled by the rhythmic beauty of your words.”

You can imagine my key-smashing delight!

Publication date will be sometime mid-summer; as soon as the issue is live I will be posting the link here, as well as…

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival is this weekend, and I’m geared up and ready to go! If you’ll be in Salem for the festival, here are places to find me:*

Friday

1:15 pm – “Because, the Internet” workshop
3:30 pm – Poetry meetup at Howling Wolf
7:30 pm – Headliner reading with Denise Duhamel, Nick Flynn, and Adrian Matejka

Saturday

9:30 am – “Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Massachusetts Poetry” workshop
11:00 am – “Writing Sound to Sound” workshop
sometime between 11 am – 2 pm – Poetry Carnival
12:15 pm – “From Zero to One” panel
2:00 pm – “Narrative Poetry” workshop with Naugatuck River Review
3:15 pm – either “Flatline Poetry” or “Aloha, Winter. Aloha, Spring.” readings
7:30 pm – Headliner reading with Rita Dove and Richard Blanco

Sunday

A view of Branching Out: Trees as Art from the Peabody Essex Museum. Photo by Meg Winikates.

10ish am – Paint…