Biography
Michael J. Knisely lives in Greeley, Colorado, where he teaches writing at the University of Northern Colorado and at Aims Community College. A recent transplant from Lincoln, Nebraska, Michael first began writing letter poems to those he wished to woo, and. following a bachelor’s degree at the age of 26, took a 9-month tour of North America, keeping a journal whose last entry is his first official “poem,” entitled “Upon Receiving a Hitchhiking Ticket”, just outside of Indio, California, heading back to Tucson, Arizona, where he would begin his teaching career, first teaching cooking skills to wards of the state, then substituting in the public schools, teaching for “real” wages, becoming a father (at 34), gaining an MFA in Creative Writing – Poetry from the University of Arizona, returning to Nebraska to live and help raise his son Noah. Now, one of his goals is to work to create a Poetry Center in the Rockies (for any of you benefactors out there), learn to appreciate fly fishing, continue to do black and white darkroom work, and finally work to publish the books he has been procrastinating (Dart Football, Noah’s Cookbook, a book of poems, a book of photographs), and continue to teach until his time’s up.
While publishing his own poems has not been a priority for Michael, he has had poems published in an Arizona quarterly The Prickly Pear, the monthly South Ash, Inc., as well as in the online fine arts magazine thescreamonline.com.
