Michelle is a Midwest writer, teacher, and blogger. She is a post-middle-aged, middle class, middle manager of average height and IQ. She is a US Army veteran and introverted community activist. She has a useless BA in Soviet and East European Studies and only the M of her M.A. in Russian Linguistics, because she kept falling asleep during class and decided taking expensive naps was a bad idea. She lives in a suburb of Minneapolis with her husband, daughter, and squirrels that she names and now counts as friends of the pandemic.
She is currently working on her MFA in Creative Writing. As part of her writing procrastination strategy, Michelle teaches workshops on Self-Care for Creative People and How to Create a Writing Practice, while also facilitating writing groups. Her current work-in-progress is Property Lines, a novel, and she writes for her blog The Green Study.
Writer’s Statement
I write to make sense of an overwhelmingly complex world. I believe nuance, circumspection, and context are critical to private and public evolution and enlightenment. In both nonfiction and fiction, I write about community and what this means in a disconnected society. I write out of curiosity about the alchemy that can happen between people when we traverse barriers – through shared experience, acceptance, and recognition of each other’s humanity. Thematically, I write tales of redemption and focus on those small moments of grace found in the most dire circumstances.
In excavating my creative self late in life, I discovered the joy of teaching. This is where I have found a purpose – to encourage the silent to use their words, to amplify those who whisper, to make spaces for those voices, and to remove the stigma of rules that prevent people from expressing themselves. I mentor young writers and I actively seek out writers who need and want a sense of community. Teaching makes me a better writer, but also a better literary citizen and I will continue to grow my practice as a facilitator and teacher, while honing my skills as an essayist, short story writer and novelist.
The Green Study 