"I’m not a good liar. I’ve been looking for the perfect
metaphor for sadness. All along."
- Michael Torres, "Because My Brother Knows Why They Call Them “County Blues,” but Won’t Tell Me Why"
An Incomplete List of Names by 
Photo Source: Henry Jimenez via MichaelTorresWriter.com
An Interview with Michael Torres - Cultural Daily (2021)
Pomona’s Fading Graffiti Reborn as Exalted Poetry - SGV Weekly (2021)
A Conversation with Michael Torres - On the Seawall (2021)
Interview with Michael Torres about An Incomplete List of Names, a National Poetry Series winner selected by Raquel Salas Rivera - Midway Journal (2022)
Watering Poems: Moncho Alvarado Interviews Michael Torres - Latino Stories (2023)
Michael Torres was born and raised in Pomona, California where he spent his adolescence as a graffiti artist. In 2016 he received his MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato, was a winner of the Loft Mentor Series, received an Individual Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and was awarded a Jerome Foundation Research and Travel Grant to visit the pueblo in Jalisco, Mexico where his father grew up. In 2019 he received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and The Loft Literary Center for the Mirrors & Windows Program. A former Artist-in-Residence at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France as well as a McKnight Writing Fellow, he is currently a 2021-22 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow.
His first collection of poems, An Incomplete List of Names, was selected by Raquel Salas Rivera for the National Poetry Series, named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020, and was featured on the podcast Code Switch.
His writing has been featured or is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2020, The New Yorker, POETRY, Ploughshares, Smartish Pace, Los Angeles Review of Books, and more.
via Butler University Visiting Writers Series
Find out more on Michael's Website
Yet Another Life - Plume (2022)
Passing Through La Junta, Colorado, During a Storm - AGNI Online (2022)
A Brief History of Pomona House Parties - Alta Journal (2022)
Aubade Desiring To Be An Ars Poetica, With A Release Date Inside It - Poetry International
After I’m Gone - Boom California (2021)
Portrait of My Brother at Thirteen and 5’2 - The New Yorker (2021)
Essays for My Daughter - The Sun (2022)
Heading North to Become a Poet - LitHub (2020)
On Election Week and Loudness - Poetry Foundation (2020)
As If To Say - The Sun (2017)
National Poetry Series Winner. This award is given out to five people each year and recipients have one book of poetry sponsored by the National Poetry Series.
National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in 2019. These awards are $25,000 grants given in prose and poetry on a 2 year cycle. It enables authors to travel and research for their projects.
Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship from 2021-2023. This is a fellowship awarded over the span of three years to artists based out of Minnesota or New York City. The award is equal to $60,000 over three years to support living and writing expenses for the writers who receive it.
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