Short bio

I was born in Washington, D.C., lived in Rochester, New York, for a long stretch of time, and I now call Venice, Florida, my home.

I am a speculative fiction author & poet, delving into ancient civilizations & mind-exploring the cosmos. I am an active member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association SFWA and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association SFPA.

I am the program & marketing officer for the Rochester Speculative Literature Association R-SPEC.

And as needed, I wear different hats as a freelance technical / creative writer, writing instructor, graphic designer, archaeohistorian, genealogist, and a world-traveling photographer.

My 2019 and 2023  award-winning poetry is featured on the SF&F Poetry Association website.

I have poems published in:

· A Flash of Dark: Vol. 3 anthology
· Aethereal Engineer online anthologies
· Dark Matter Magazine 
· Hawk and Young online anthologies
· Poetry in 13: Volume 3 anthology
· Scifaikuest magazine
· SciFanSat e-magazine
· Star*Line magazine

and stories published in: 

· 2034: Writing Rochester's Futures anthology
· A Flash of Dark: Vol. 3 anthology
· Aethereal Engineer online anthologies
· Dark Matter Magazine
· SciFanSat e-magazine
· Serious Flash Fiction Volume IX anthology
· Serious Flash Fiction Volumes I-IX anthology

A slightly longer bio

To the Stars​!
(A Hopeful Autobiography in
Five Present-Tense Stanzas)

I stroll past the marble monuments and museums
of Earth's United States' unique capital city
my first home outside my mother's womb
my last night to savor its tranquility
The air swells suddenly with electric sounds
and the scent of newly bloomed cherry blossoms

I journey by maglev to the Northern Spaceport
near Rochester, my adopted North Shore home
it shines like a beacon with its tapered shuttles
each poised to leap into the turquoise sky
The air is thick with oily smells and endless noise
and my heart skips as I enter into night's expanse

I walk quickly along the hermetic Main Street
of Eureka, the Valles Marineris arcology
which hangs suspended below the canyon rim
as if by some bizarre, alien techno-magic
The toxic pollution ascends into the burnt umber sunset
and it reminds me this is a tired, human world

I leave Mars and sojourn on a topaz-green world
of the Galactic Commonwealth, a world called New Earth
which circles a small, yellow mainstream sun
one of a dozen planets we claim as our own
The ocean, land, and sky are clear and pleasing
and I am delighted these are human worlds

I travel far across the star-strewn galaxy
my life at its zenith, and I marvel at how Earth's progeny
have achieved far-reaching, everlasting majesty
striding across the worlds of myriad, distant suns
The lessons we have learned since leaving the nest
and the travails we have endured have made us eternal

Alan Vincent Michaels
(12 Aug 2011)

©2011 Alan Vincent Michaels. All Rights Reserved.