Hello, and thank you for visiting my bio page.
I have twenty years of experience as a journalist, author, editor, and tutor.
My lifelong love of language creates an enthusiastic learning environment. I’m good-natured, genuinely caring, and young at heart. So it’s easy for me to build rapport with my students.
I taught English grammar and composition at Seminole State College of Florida and tutored essay writing for SMARTHINKING, Inc.
I’ve written news and essays for The Newark...
Hello, and thank you for visiting my bio page.
I have twenty years of experience as a journalist, author, editor, and tutor.
My lifelong love of language creates an enthusiastic learning environment. I’m good-natured, genuinely caring, and young at heart. So it’s easy for me to build rapport with my students.
I taught English grammar and composition at Seminole State College of Florida and tutored essay writing for SMARTHINKING, Inc.
I’ve written news and essays for The Newark Star-Ledger, The Providence Journal, Orlando Sentinel, New York Daily News, Fairfax Times, Twin Cities Business Monthly, Utne Reader, and Charleston Gazette-Mail.
I have also published more than a hundred short stories and essays in literary journals, including North American Review, The Kenyon Review, and The Iowa Review. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize, "The Scratchboard Project" won an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories series (2007).
In addition, I’ve also authored four literary novels, including a children’s book. The Night I Freed John Brown (Penguin 2008) won the 2009 Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers and was shortlisted for Black History Month by USA Today.
Publishers of my other novels include the University of Wisconsin/Cornerstone Books, Stephen F. Austin State University Press, and West Virginia University Press.
Finally, I have a lifelong love of dictionaries. I studied lexicography at Marymount Manhattan College, and when I taught English at Seminole State College of Florida, I made the dictionary required reading.
I hold a BA in Fine Arts from George Mason University and an MFA in Fiction Writing from the University of Central Florida.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Thank you kindly,
John Michael