Michael Callaghan

When he was eight years old, Michael Callaghan moved from Royal Oak to the base of Old Mission Peninsula. He attended Northwestern Michigan College, went on to Michigan State University, and finally to Western Michigan University. Originally intending to study biology, he switched his major after taking an introductory creative writing class. He had terrific mentors at Western—Nancy Eimers, William Olsen, and Herb Scott—all wonderful poets who shaped his writing, his craft.

As an undergraduate, Michael won Western’s graduate writing prize, and after getting his diploma, entered graduate school under a full fellowship in the MFA Creative Writing Program. He published poems in the anthology The PrePress Awards Volume 2: Michigan Voices and gave readings and taught workshops in and around Kalamazoo.

Michael returned to the Traverse City area before finishing his MFA and,
during a relatively short stint as a barista at Ray’s Coffee House, met his wife Melonie, an artist. They have a son, Seamus, who is eight years old.

Michael currently works as a Survey and Civil Engineering drafter at Elmer’s Construction Engineering. He hopes to finish his first full-length book of poems by next spring as he pursues his goal of finishing his MFA.