Michael Dickman

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Michael Dickman was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1975. He received his MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. Dickman's first collection, The End of the West, was published in 2009 by Copper Canyon Press. He is also the author of Green Migraine (Copper Canyon Press, 2015) and the coauthor, with his brother, of 50 American Plays (Copper Canyon Press, 2012). His second collection of poetry, Flies (Copper Canyon Press, 2011), received the 2010 James Laughlin Award. His many grants, fellowships, and residencies include honors from organizations such as the Michener Center for Writers, the Vermont Studio Center, The Guggenheim Foundation, the Fine Arts Work Center, and the Lannan Foundation. He was awarded the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University for 2009-2010.In addition to writing, Dickman appeared in the 2002 film Minority Report with his twin brother, poet Matthew Dickman. He is on the faculty at Princeton University, and lives in New Jersey. Source  

Excerpt from “From the Lives of My Friends”

What are the birds called

in that neighborhood

The dogs

 

There were dogs flying

from branch to

branch

My friends and I climbed up the telephone poles to sit on the power lines dressed like

   crows

 

Their voices sounded like lemons

 

They were a smooth sheet

They grew

 

black feathers

 

Not frightening at all

but beautiful, shiny and

full of promise

 

What kind of light

 

is that?

Published:

2010

Length:

Shorty

Literary Movements:

Contemporary

Anthology Years:

2023

Themes:

Childhood & Coming of Age

Friendship

Memory & The Past

Literary Devices:

Imagery

visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work

Metaphor

a comparison between two unrelated things through a shared characteristic

Rhetorical Question

a question asked for effect, not necessarily to be answered

Simile

a comparison between two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”