Michael McGriff is an American poet.
Life McGriff was born and raised in Coos Bay, Oregon. His work has appeared in Slate, Field, AGNI, The Believer, Missouri Review, and Poetry. He is the founding editor of Tavern Books, a publishing house dedicated to poetry in translation and the revival of out-of-print books.
McGriff's book Home Burial (Copper Canyon Press, 2012) chronicles the dissolution of a people and their landscape - the coastal Pacific Northwest. His most recent book of poetry, Early Hour, is a book length sequence inspired by German Expressionist Karl Hofer's 1935 painting (Fruhe Stunde) of the same name.
McGriff currently teaches creative writing at the University of Idaho.
Awards
Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University Ruth Lilly Fellowship from The Poetry Foundation Michener Fellowship from the University of Texas at Austin 2007 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, for Dismantling the Hills 2010 Lannan Literary Fellowship 2013 Levis Reading Prize from Virginia Commonwealth University
Works "Year of the Rat", Courtland Review, Spring 2009
Home Burial (Copper Canyon Press, 2012) Black Postcards (Willow Springs Books, 2017) Early Hour (Copper Canyon Press, 2017) Eternal Sentences (The University of Arkansas Press, 2021) Angel Sharpening Its Beak (Carnegie Mellon University Press Poetry Series, 2025)
Anthology
Translation "From July ’90", Tomas Tranströmer, AGNI 65, 2007 "Landscape with Suns", Tomas Tranströmer, AGNI 65, 2007
References
External links "Michael McGriff Q&A recommends two poets", Fishouse