Michael Dumanis
The acclaimed poetry of Michael Dumanis weaves together memories of childhood, diaspora, and dislocation.
Biography
Dumanis is the author of the poetry collections Creature (Four Way Books, 2023) and My Soviet Union (University of Massachusetts Press, 2007), winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry. He is also coeditor (with poet Cate Marvin) of the younger poets’ anthology Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (Sarabande, 2006) and (with poet Kevin Prufer) of Russell Atkins: On the Life & Work of an American Master (Pleiades, 2013). His poems have appeared in journals such as American Poetry Review, The Believer, Colorado Review, The Common, Iowa Review, Ninth Letter, Ploughshares, and Poetry; in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day Project and on the Poetry Society of America website. His writing has been recognized with residencies at Yaddo, Headlands Center for the Arts, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, and the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbertide, Italy; a grant from the Ohio Arts Council; a 2012 Community Partnership for Arts and Culture Creative Workforce Fellowship; and the Poetry Society of America's Lyric Poetry Award.
Born in Moscow, in the former Soviet Union, Dumanis emigrated with his family at the age of five and grew up in Western New York. Dumanis was previously a professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University and Cleveland State University, where he also served as director of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center, a literary press. He holds a BA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. Dumanis joined the Bennington faculty in Fall 2012. In addition to being a member of the Literature faculty, he serves as Director of Poetry at Bennington and Editor of Bennington Review and is also a faculty member in the Bennington Writing Seminars.
