Michelle Y. Burke is an award-winning poet as well as a devoted teacher and mother. She is the author of the poetry collection Animal Purpose, winner of the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, and her poetry has been featured on The Writer’s Almanac, American Life in Poetry, Best of the Net, and Poetry Out Loud. She’s received poetry prizes from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund, the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, and the American Literary Review, and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center.
She holds a PhD from the University of Cincinnati, an MFA from the Ohio State University, and a BA from Loyola University Maryland and is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Foundations of Critical Inquiry Program at the Stevens Institute of Technology. At Stevens, she teaches courses that explore creativity, community, and the intersection of technology and ethics.
She believes in creating opportunities for screen-free interaction, especially for young people, and with the help of her daughter and son, she hosts regular knitting circles and nature outings for the tweens in her Washington Heights and Inwood community.
If you’d like to know more, watch her TEDx Talk “Can Gen Z Reclaim the Art of Conversation?” If you’re interested in creating opportunities for in-person tween socialization in your neighborhood, check out Tweens Without Screens.
Headshot credit: Charles Chessler Photography