Meet Michele Wolf

Please tell us about your current line of work and how you got started in it. 

I have been writing poetry in a dedicated way since my early 20s. The turning point for me was attending the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont. I arrived with a scholarship in nonfiction and attended all the nonfiction readings and workshops. But the conference also provided the first time I was exposed to contemporary poetry, primarily by hearing poems read aloud by their authors, and I was in an environment in which poetry was deeply valued. It was a transforming experience. I was so moved by the strength of the poems, I was swept away. I knew then that the writing I wanted to pursue was poetry.

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I have just published my fourth poetry collection, Peacocks on the Streets, available from Broadstone Books. Peacocks on the Streets explores what is wild and unpredictable in our lives — both what slams us and what uplifts us — and how we find the resolve to triumph after trauma. The poems’ subjects range from pandemic bereavement, hate crimes, and terrorism, to falling in love at midlife, adopting a child, and caring for a parent stolen by dementia. Social justice is a repeated theme, as is the parent-child bond. With grit and compassion, Peacocks on the Streets offers a keen sense of the privilege of being alive. 

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“Every moment of these powerful and evocative poems is embedded with honest-to-life reflections on loss in relation to the perseverance of the human spirit,” says presidential inaugural poet Richard Blanco, author of Homeland of My Body: New and Selected Poems,  about Peacocks on the Streets. “Wolf awakens in us the beauty of witnessing all the tender as well as devastating moments that serve all our lives. As Anaïs Nin noted, writers ‘taste life twice,’ and Wolf does this phenomenally, recapturing the rich and complicated tapestries of a wild life fully lived.”

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My earlier books are Immersion, which won the Hilary Tham Capital Collection prize; Conversations During Sleep, winner of the Anhinga Prize for Poetry; and The Keeper of Light, which was the Painted Bride Quarterly Poetry Chapbook Series winner. I have published poems widely, in Poetry, The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, and other literary journals and anthologies, and on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, poets.org, and as a  Poem of the Day on the Poetry Foundation website. Among my honors are a Maryland State Arts Council literary arts Independent Artist Award, an Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award, and fellowships from the Montgomery County (Maryland) Arts and Humanities Council, Yaddo, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico.

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More information about my books is available at https://michelewolf.com/books.html.

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Do you have any mentors or sources of inspiration?

When I am looking for inspiration, I often turn to the work of other poets. Sometimes just the rhythms of the poems, independent of their content, get me in the frame of mind to write. I have many favorite poems and poets, but one piece I especially like is “The Wellfleet Whale” by Stanley Kunitz. Sometimes even individual poems can be mentors.

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What parts of your work do you enjoy most? Why?

I enjoy the early, free-association stage of composing a poem, when I make discoveries and explore where the poem is going to go. It’s fun to be open to surprise, and it’s certainly the most creative stage of the work. But I also love revision, perfecting the details and choosing each word based on its nuances and sounds. I’ll admit it — I’m a word nerd. Plus, I love giving public readings of my work. It’s so rewarding to connect with an audience.

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What are your favorite things to do when you have free time?

I’m happiest spending my free time with family and friends, and enjoying the beauty of nature. I have a favorite walk I like to take in my neighborhood, around a lake in a wooded area. I’m also a fan of museums, movies, and theater. And I like to read not only poetry but also literary, family-centered novels.

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Are there any dream projects you'd like to pursue?

For the first time in more than a decade, I deliberately have a less hectic work schedule, and soon I will have more time to write. This is a great gift and a luxury. Things have been so busy with the launch of Peacocks on the Streets that I have yet to ponder what my next dream projects will be. I already have the bare beginnings  of several new poems. Maybe in a matter of years I’ll publish a New and Selected Poems. I recently ventured into writing memoir-style prose with a piece for The Writer’s Center Magazine. Maybe I’ll pursue that kind of writing further — or go in another direction altogether! It’s exciting to have an open door and to see what will present itself.

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How can we learn more about you?

You can check out my website, at  https://michelewolf.com/, to learn more about me, read reviews of my books and poems from them, and learn about my upcoming readings and other events. You can also read about me and about Peacocks on Streets, including purchase information (the discount code is POETS24 for 20% off), on my Broadstone Books web page, at
https://www.broadstonebooks.com/shop/p/peacocks-on-the-streets-poetry-by-michele-wolf

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