Michael Wasson (born 1990) is an American Nimíipuu poet from the town of Lenore,

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

on the Nez Perce Reservation. He currently lives in

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Career

Michael Wasson grew up on the Nez Perce reservation in Idaho, and recalls that landscape, his elders, and their stories and language as having a formative impact on his writing. He earned his BA studying literature, creative writing and his indigenous Nez Perce language, Nimipuutímt, at Lewis-Clark State College and an MFA in creative writing from

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

while teaching writing courses. He has also taught literature, writing, and English in Tokyo, Japan, and he currently lives in

, on the island of Kyushu, in Japan. He has been reported to have lived there since 2014 where he worked as an English and English Conversational teacher. His work has also been used as an example in a short form creative writing anthology used to teach poetry and short fiction. His first book, ''This American Ghost'', ranges across topics from classical Greek literature to the violence done by Christianity and colonialism to the cultural experiences of Nez Perce people.

Awards and nominations

Wasson is the recipient of a

Native Arts and Cultures Foundation The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports Native American artists, culture bearers, and Native-led arts organizations, providing them with support through fellowships and project funding. ...

National Artist Fellowship in Literature, the Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry, the Vinyl 45 Chapbook Prize, and the Joyce Carol Oates Commencement Award in Poetry. In 2019 he was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is an American literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist Rut ...

Publications

* ''Swallowed Light'' (2021) – * ''This American Ghost'' (2017) –

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasson, Michael Living people Native American poets 21st-century American poets Poets from Idaho Nez Perce people American expatriates in Japan 1990 births