About me

A three-time $17,000 California Arts Council grant recipient, victim of enthusiasms Michael McLaughlin worked for twenty-nine years as an Artist-in-Residence at Atascadero State Hospital, a maximum security forensic facility, as a Contract Artist with the California Department of Corrections for 25 years and as San Luis Obispo County Area Coordinator for California Poets in the Schools.

Founding editor of the University of Southern California's Southern California Anthology (now Exposition), and twice nominated for Pushcart Prizes, Michael McLaughlin has written two novels, Western People Show Their Faces and Gang of One. His third and most recent collection of poetry, Countless Cinemas (University of Hell Press, Portland, Oregon) came out in March of 2016. Originally from San Francisco, McLaughlin, his brilliant and beautiful wife and their cadre of cats relocated to Prescott, Arizona, where he now teaches at Yavapai College. Selected Poet Laureate of San Luis Obispo county in 2003, he orchestrated Orcutt's 's Live from the CORE poetry/ performance series for over seven years and taught English at the Federal Penitentiary in Lompoc through Allan Hancock Community College in Santa Maria, California.