Michael Simms (publisher)
Michael Simms is an American
Early life
Born in 1954 in
Career
In 1998, Simms founded the literary publisher
Simms has won many fellowships, grants and awards for his work, including a 2011 Certificate of Recognition from the Pennsylvania Legislature for his contribution to the arts. In addition to his literary career, Simms has written and published on health, nutrition and the environment, having earned a certificate in plant-based nutrition from Cornell University (2015). From 1979-1987 he served on the faculty of
Critical response
Regarding Simms' collection American Ash, the poet and critic Chard deNiord has said:
"Michael Simms lays bare his personal history in American Ash with formidable honesty and direct speech, testifying with “a cold eye” to both the heuristic and cathartic power of poetry. In speech that’s direct, lyrical, spontaneous, raw, and expansive, Simms braves a wide array of subjects that range from his sister’s suicide, the 1982 El Calabozo massacre in El Salvador, a Vietnam vet’s memory of a slaughter of innocents, and the demise of the American Ash, to mention only a few. And there are ecstatic poems as well in which such immense particulars as the marriage bed, evening, Simms’ robust son, and the hummingbird betray a heroic magnanimity. With a beat-like voice that’s spontaneous, raw, and irrepressible, Simms writes with the courage of a witness and the wisdom of a survivor. These poems leap, lament, pierce, transcend, delve, witness, praise, and testify to the curative power of poetry."
Regarding Simms' collection Nightjar, the poet and classicist Rachel Hadas wrote:
“This powerful collection offers personal and global truths that are hard to say out loud; one poem even helpfully coins the words we need. But all the words deployed by Michael Simms are honest and urgent. ‘The Ruins,’ ‘Flood and Fire,’ and the title poem recall the darkly vatic voice of Brecht’s late lyrics. Yet, Simms always sounds like himself: plainspoken, intimate, vulnerable, courageous. Both heartening and heartbreaking, Nightjar is an irreplaceable book.”
Regarding Simms's writing, Peter Makuck wrote:
"Whether Michael Simms is writing an essay about growing up with autism or poems about our dying planet, a barfight, or the mystery of a hummingbird's radiance, he is a master storyteller whose narratives hold memorable moments full of fresh and telling details that unlock the heart.
Books
Poetry Collections
- Strange Meadowlark (Princeton, New Jersey: Ragged Sky Press, 2023)
- Nightjar (Princeton, New Jersey: Ragged Sky Press, 2021)
- American Ash (Princeton, New Jersey: Ragged Sky Press, 2020)
- Black Stone (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Monkey Sea Editions, 2009)
- The Happiness of Animals (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Monkey Sea Editions, 2006)
- The Fire-eater (Dallas, Texas: Firewheel Press, 1989)
- Migration (Portland, Oregon: Breitenbush Books, 1985)
- Notes on Continuing Light (Des Moines, Iowa: Blue Buildings, 1981)
Novels
- Windkeep (Dallas, Texas: Madville Publishing, 2024)
- The Green Mage (Dallas, Texas: Madville Publishing, 2023)
- Bicycles of the Gods: A Divine Comedy (Dallas, Texas: Madville Publishing, 2022)
Nonfiction
- Longman Dictionary of Poetic Terms (co-author with Jack Myers, New York: Longman, 1989)
- Longman Dictionary and Handbook of Poetry, (co-author with Jack Myers, New York: Longman, 1985)
Anthologies Edited
- The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry (Pittsburgh: Autumn House Press, 2011, 2015, 2017)
- O. Henry’s Texas Stories (co-editor with Marian McClintock, Dallas: Stillpoint Press, 1986)
References
Sources
Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2003. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000149473.
External links
- [1] Official Website for Michael Simms
- [2] Poems by Michael Simms on Poetry Foundation website
- [3] Recordings of Michael Simms reading his poems on Voetica website
- 'Autumn House Press'
- 'Vox Populi'
- Poems: Poetry Magazine > Archives > January 2000 > Poems by Michael Simms
- [4] A Review of American Ash by Michael Simms