Michael Dickman + Paulann Petersen

Michael Dickman was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1975. He received his MFA from the Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin. His first poetry collection, The End of the West, was published in 2009 by Copper Canyon Press. He is also the author of Green Migraine and the coauthor, with his brother Matthew Dickman, of 50 American Plays. His second collection, Flies, received the 2010 James Laughlin Award. Dickman was awarded the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University for 2009-2010. He is on the faculty at Princeton University, and lives in New Jersey.

Paulann Petersen served from 2010–2014 as Oregon’s sixth Poet Laureate. She is the author of seven poetry collections: The Wild Awake, Blood-Silk, A Bride of Narrow Escape, Kindle, The Voluptuary, Understory, and most recently One Small Sun (2019) from Salmon Poetry of Ireland. In addition to her full-length books, she has published five chapbooks (Under the Sign of a Neon Wolf, The Animal Bride, Fabrication, The Hermaphrodite Flower, and Shimmer & Drone) and three collaborations (Dark River of Stars; Alfred Edleman: Urban Compositions; and Timeless Flow). The recipient of the 2006 Holbrook Award from Oregon Literary Arts and the 2013 Distinguished Northwest Writer Award from Willamette Writers, Petersen has taught poetry workshops at the Mountain Writers Series, The Attic Institute, Fishtrap, Oregon Poetry Association, and Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College.