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