Michael Clifton was born in Reedley, California, in 1949 and grew up on various army bases around the world before his family settled in Fresno in 1960. He attended McLane High School and then California State University, Fresno, where he received both a BA and an MA in English before getting a PhD in American Literature at Indiana University, Bloomington. He teaches at California State University, Fresno, has published scholarly articles in a variety of journals, including Nineteenth-Century Literature and the Chicago Review, and has poems in Down at the Santa Fe Depot: Twenty Fresno Poets and How Much Earth: The Fresno Poets. Whatever Lasts in Winter is his first book-length publication and the first book in the Ash Tree Series by Tebot Bach Press.
His involvement with poetry is largely founded on the ridiculously good luck of landing in Fresno and his relationships with the talented poets here who have convinced him to keep writing. He went to high school with David St. John and took classes at Fresno State from Phil Levine, Pete Everwine, and Chuck Hanzlicek. Fellow students in one of his poetry workshops included St. John, Sam Pereira, Greg Pape, and Roberta Spear.
In the cover photo for Twenty Fresno Poets, a group shot, you can just make out William Saroyan’s head peeking out over the shoulder of his old friend, almost unnoticed.
Here’s to Fresno, good luck, and periodic music in the head.
