Robin Michel has over twenty years’ experience as a professional writer, publisher, editor, creative writing instructor, and communications consultant. Her reporting and human interest articles have appeared in numerous daily and weekly newspapers, regional and special interest magazines, and her poetry and prose in many print and online literary journals. She has received awards and recognition from the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference, the Soul-Making Keats Awards (poetry and fiction), the Ina Coolbrith Circle (poetry), and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Stories. Her work in K-12 communications has received special commendations, including an Award of Excellence for the California School Public Relations Association (CalSPRA) in 2018. She is currently providing communications services for Sonoma County Junior College District.
Robin belongs to two poetry collectives, Fresh Ink (San Francisco East Bay) and Wild Women Writing (San Francisco), and is a member of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI). In 2019, Robin founded the independent poetry-publishing house Raven & Wren Press, in order to release Florence Miller’s After Rain a Little Girl Straightening Worms. In fall 2020, Raven & Wren released HOW TO BEGIN: Poems, Prompts, Tips and Writing Exercises by the Fresh Ink Poetry Collective to improve your poetry practice—or start a group of your own, edited by Robin Michel.
Robin has a Bachelor of Arts from St. Mary’s College and a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from Mills College. She is deeply grateful for the nonlinear career path she has traveled, for it has inspired her writing, and most importantly, provided her with inspirational mentors and friends who are committed to making this world a better place.
How To Begin: Poems, Prompts, Tips and Writing Exercises by the Fresh Ink Poetry Collective to improve your poetry practice—or start a group of your own! Edited by Robin Michel, Fresh Ink Collective
“How to Begin is an incisive guide to poetry, blending instruction with inspiration. Drawing upon the Fresh Ink Poetry Collective’s decades of knowledge and experience, the book is a feast of prompts, explication of a wide array of traditional forms, glossary of poetic terms, practical tips on how to start a writing group, and poems as examples—including the anthology of terrific poems written by members of the collective across the years. How to Begin is a testament to the belief in poetry as practice, nurtured by dailiness and sustained by being in a community of others engaged in the art.”
— Shara McCallum, author of No Ruined Stone and Madwoman
Available at Raven and Wren Press.
Robin Michel, Writer & Poet 