Michael Writing

[Marie Ota]

InternationalLiterary Artist and Nationally Ranked Slam Poet Christopher Michael, brings you a creative writing workshop and some of his best Slam Poems. Come see how he turns life into written and spoken works of art.

This interest in the arts is what led her to become the poet that she is today. She particularly likes to draw inspiration from nature. Her disability is present in some of her writings, but Michael likes to keep her poetry as relatable to everyone as possible.

Another frequent subject of her poems is her service dog, York, who has been with Michael for the past 5 years. The bond between Michael and York is almost palpable. When they first met, York was not a big fan of Michael but he quickly warmed up to her.

However, Michael does not allow this pressure to stop her. So far, Michael has been published in several different poetry collections, such as Barriers and Belongings: Personal Narratives of Disability. In November, Michael will come out with her own book of poetry, which will be called Neotony.

Michael: Those monkeys are aware that each room has a mini bar. We had a situation where as we were leaving, we got trapped in the room because a monkey entered our room. And I just full on panic and Christina did not panic. She got rid of the monkey. I wrote that story, I pressed send, sent it out. And then we went to bed and the next morning we woke up and Christina was like, What did people think? And basically the consensus from the Situation Normal community is that I am a total coward and you are a hero and I am lucky to have you, which is all true.

Gabe Hudson: if I'm getting this picture right, you go about your life and you've got your peepers open for just the whiff of something that could make for that week's story, or the next week's story. Is that right?

Michael: I got to meet a writer who worked for a couple of seasons on Seinfeld. He was explaining how that writing team thought about slice of life humor. What he basically said was, If you're going to do slice of life humor, your beat is everything because your beat is life, right?

Michael: I don't think he likes Jewish people, and I think he can figure it out that I'm Jewish, but he hasn't identified me as a problem. He is a guy who will say terrible things about a neighbor on one side used to be a woman from El Salvador, and he would say terrible things about her, but lovely things about our Cuban neighbors on the other side. And I was like, I don't understand why your racism only goes in one direction and not the other. I've written about him.

And so in that way, I just think I have to be open to all those things, but it also leaves me in a place where I have some gratitude about what's going on in my life. And just thinking those things through. Whereas if I wasn't writing Situation Normal and my catalytic converter had been stolen twice, I think I would be signing a petition to recall the DA.

Michael: That's a good question. For the stuff that's on Situation Normal. I draw some inspiration from David Sedaris. I think also some of his essays are not designed to be funny. They're just personal essays. I'm mostly trying for the humor, but he is very funny. And I think reading his work, particularly Me Talk Pretty One Day, but also Dress Your Family in Corduroy and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, those stories really resonated with me. And they gave me permission to tell these kinds of stories.

I just think Denard is the best joke writer. He's just a phenomenal joke writer. And he does this thing where if you subscribe to his newsletter, which you should subscribe to his newsletter, I think he calls it a newsreel. It's just headlines. That he writes that should perfectly sum up a story that's in the news, but the headline is the joke. You know how I know something is like really good is when I look at it and I think like How come I can't do that?

Anne Kadet is reporting on the city of New York as if it's a small town. But what she's doing is she's covering topics that a news would never cover. But they're still meaningful topics because there's things that people see every day, right? I just love about her newsletter, she doesn't do it every week, a monthly thing I think, being a New Yorker, she covers Eric Adams, it's called Eric Adams Watch.

I like to read Noted for a lot of reasons. Jillian Hess did a piece on Jim Morrison's notebooks, the singer of The Doors. What Jillian had to say about it, it both lifts him up and brings him down to your level. You get to see his private thoughts and you realize he's got messy handwriting. He's a little bit scattered. It's a little bit all over the place, but he was consistently putting down ideas into a space, working through them and coming up with his art.

Today I interview special guest author, , who writes the beloved newsletter, . Around which a big community of fervent super-devoted readers has sprung up. Michael\u2019s comic stories from his life are big-hearted and sometimes weird. When you talk to him about the community of readers that gather around his words, his deep affection for them shines through. The other cool thing about Michael's writing endeavor is his creative partnership with his wife.

What else do I have to announce? Ah, I just interviewed Dave Eggers today. It was really good to sit down with Dave and have a heart to heart. We've been friends for 25 years, back from when his first book came out. And McSweeney's was brand new. I\u2019ll post my interview with Eggers tomorrow \u2013 so keep an eye out.

And so in that way, I just think I have to be open to all those things, but it also leaves me in a place where I have some gratitude about what's going on in my life. And just thinking those things through. Whereas if I wasn't writing and my catalytic converter had been stolen twice, I think I would be signing a petition to recall the DA.

Michael: That's a good question. For the stuff that's on . I draw some inspiration from David Sedaris. I think also some of his essays are not designed to be funny. They're just personal essays. I'm mostly trying for the humor, but he is very funny. And I think reading his work, particularly Me Talk Pretty One Day, but also Dress Your Family in Corduroy and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, those stories really resonated with me. And they gave me permission to tell these kinds of stories.

Leaving Richard's Valley, the graphic novel by Michael DeForge published earlier this year by Drawn & Quarterly, begins with half the cast fleeing paradise, banished from their anti-technology cult for importing forbidden "toxins." They're all talking animals, heart-shaped raccoons and pasta-legged spiders, as if the fauna got thrown out of Eden rather than the humans. DeForge follows them from that Toronto park to DIY venues and alternative schools, affectionately satirizing the city's history of experimental living. Anxiety prevails: Lyle the raccoon spends much of his time sickly and weeping, while buff frog Caroline tries manipulating her way into the human guru's heart. ("I love Richard so much, sometimes I want to hug him until his head explodes. I want to kiss his arms until they become skeleton arms.") Even Richard himself proves to be less of a cult leader than a lost, forlorn mystic.

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