Michael Collier is the author of six collections of poems, most recently My Bishop and Other Poems. His collection The Ledge was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He has received numerous awards for his poetry, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was the Poet Laureate of Maryland from 2001-2004 and the Director of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference from 1993-2017.