RICHARD MICHELSON is a prize-winning poet
and children’s book author. His first book, Tap Dancing
for the Relatives, was praised by Nobel Laureate Elie Weisel
as “deeply moving.” His latest collection, Battles
& Lullabies, published by the University of Illinois Press, was recently selected as one of the 12 best poetry books of 2006 by ForeWord Magazine. Michelson’s
poetry has appeared in many anthologies, including The Norton
Introduction to Poetry, where he is happily, humbly, and
alphabetically, catalogued between the literary giants James Merrill,
W.S. Merwin, Edna St. Vincent Millay and John Milton. Clemson University named Michelson as the Richard J. Calhoun Distinguished Reader in American Literature for 2008.
Michelson's numerous books for children have received a New
Yorker Best Book Award, a Children’s Book
Committee Book of the Year and a Jewish Book Council Book
of the Month. The Detroit Jewish News cited Too
Young for Yiddish, as “one of the best Jewish
children’s books published in recent memory, and one of the
top 25 ever published.” Across
the Alley, illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist E.B.
Lewis, was honored as one of two finalists for the 2006
National Jewish Book Award for Children's Illustrated
Books, and Tuttle's Red Barn was a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of 2007.
In addition to being an author, Mr. Michelson
is a popular guest speaker. Within the past year he has lectured,
and read from his works in India, Eastern Europe, and throughout
the United States. Michelson has written for the New York Times
Book Review, Publishers Weekly, Nextbook
and other publications. He is the Curator of Exhibitions at The
National Yiddish Book Center and owns R.
Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Read
the interview in The Western Massachusetts Jewish Ledger.
Read
the essay in Nextbook on Writing Across Racial Lines.
Read
From Cold Feet to Happy Feet in Publisher's Weekly
Read
High Style on Main Street in The Valley Advocate