Robert Frost Poetry Festival Poets' Biographies
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MICHAEL W THOMAS is
originally from Staffordshire, England, and lived in Canada for a number of
years. He is a poet, fiction-writer, songwriter, musician and dramatist,
with over twenty years’ experience of publication and involvement with
creative writing. His work has appeared in Stand, Iron, Other Poetry,
Staple, The Interpreter's House, The Swansea Review (all UK), as well as in
Grain and Alive Magazine (Canada), Irish University Review (Dublin) and The
Antioch Review (USA); and he is due to be published in Albania! He also
reviews for Other Poetry and Irish Studies Review (UK). Michael was awarded
first prize in the 1998 ‘Housman Society’ poetry competition, and has also
gained recognition in the ‘Stand Magazine’ short fiction competition, the
‘Yorkshire Open’ competition, two ‘Poets Anonymous’ competitions and several
others. He has recently written a
novel, The Song of the Sun, which is due for publication; and his
full-length play, Assumption Eve--a dramatization of 'the Miracle of St
Wulfstan,' Worcester's patron saint--is to be performed as part of the Three
Choirs’ Festival, Worcester, in August 2006. His latest poetry collection,
Port Winston Mulberry, was published by Silver Age Books in 2005.
Michael was guest poet at the annual Robert Frost Poetry Festival, Key West,
Florida, in Spring 2004 and 2005.
Michael also has extensive experience in running creative writing courses.
He works regularly with writers’ groups in the West Midlands, offering day
and residential workshops on a wide range of topics, covering all literary
genres. He also works with creative writing students at Birmingham
University and in primary schools throughout the country. He is a member of
the UK Society of Authors and the National Association of Writers in
Education.
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Ms. Brackenbury is a published poet with five poetry collections to her name, the latest of which, Yellow Swing: Poems, contains many poems of travel and romance. Her previous collection, The Beautiful Routes of the West is largely about discovering the Florida Keys. She is a member of the Key West Authors' Co-op, whose new collection, Mango Summers came out in 2002. She has worked variously as a parent, teacher, writer in residence, newspaper columnist and deck hand on a schooner. She is currently book editor for Solares Hill newspaper, a news weekly in Key West.
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LEE GURGA is an
award-winning haiku poet and editor of Modern Haiku, the oldest and most
respected journal of haiku and haiku studies outside Japan, as well as haiku
columnist for Solares Hill newspaper in Key West, Florida.
He is a past president of the Haiku Society of America. His books In &
Out of Fog and Fresh Scent were awarded “First Prize” in the
Haiku Society of America Book Awards; his Haiku: A Poet’s Guide was
recognized by the HSA as the “Best Book of Criticism” for 2004. He has
assisted Japanese poet Emiko Miyashita in the translation of four books of
Japanese haiku, two of which were recognized with a “Best Book of
Translations” award by the Haiku Society of American. He was awarded an
Illinois Arts Council Poetry Fellowship for his work in haiku in 1998. He
was the guest speaker at the fifteenth anniversary celebration of the Haiku
International Association in
Tokyo in November 2005. He lives and works as a general dentist in the
farming community of Lincoln, Illinois.
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television credits include Spencer for Hire, The Equalizer; Ryan’s Hope and several mini-series on PBS. In film, Richard appeared in Born on the Fourth of July, Lean on Me, and See You in the Morning and The Mighty Ducks. He is a graduate of The Goodman School of Drama at The Art Institute of Chicago and The Yale School of Drama. He teaches diving and is captain of a dive boat for Lost Reef Adventures. Richard also hosts a morning talk show, Crusin’ with Grusin, on Sunday mornings 9am to 10, for Conch FM 98.7.