Mike Schneider

Poet

Pittsburgh, PA
Pennsylvania US

Author's Bio

Mike Schneider began writing during the Vietnam War when, while serving at an Air Force base in Ohio, he published an anti-war “underground” newspaper. He has practiced law, worked as a science writer, won awards for magazine writing, and written book reviews and essays on culture for several publications. For a series of essays on art & politics in the Thomas Merton Center’s New People, he received a 2003-04 Creative Artists Stipend in Arts Commentary from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Three times nominated for the Pushcart Prize, his poems appear in many literary journals, several anthologies and three chapbooks. He received the 2012 Editors Award from The Florida Review and the 2016 Robert Phillips Prize from Texas Review Press. The Hungry Hill Writing Group in West Cork, Ireland awarded Schneider’s work second prize in its Poets Meet Politics 2022 International Open and hosted him for a reading in Castletownbere, Ireland. In 2023 he published his full-length collection Spring Mills (Ragged Sky). He lives in Pittsburgh’s historic South Side neighborhood.

Publications & Prizes

Anthologies:
Poets Meet Politics (Hungry Hill Writing, 2022)
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Nasty Women & Bad Hombres: A Poetry Anthology (Lascaux Review, 2017)
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Motif: Writing by Ear (Motes Books, 2009)
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Come Together: Imagine Peace (Bottom Dog Press, 2008)
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An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind: Poets on 9/11 (Regent Press, 2002)
Book:
Spring Mills (Ragged Sky Press, 2023)
Chapbooks:
Elvis Night at Johnny's (Broadstone Books, 2022)
,
How Many Faces Do You Have? (Texas Review Press, 2017)
,
Rooster (Main Street Rag, 2004)
Journals:
5 A.M.
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Antietam Review
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Atlanta Review
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Cloudbank
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Crosswinds Poetry Journal
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Loyalhanna Review
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Mississippi Review
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Notre Dame Review
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Paper Street
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Rune
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Sampsonia Way
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Shenandoah
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Speckled Trout Review
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Sycamore Review
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The Comstock Review
,
The Ledge
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Vox Populi
Prizes won: 

2016 Robert Phillips Chapbook Prize, Texas Review Press; 2012 Editors Award, Florida Review; Runner-up 2004 Main Street Rag Chapbook Competition, Atlanta Review 2014 International Publication Prize; second prize in the Hungry Hill Writing Group's (West Cork, Ireland) Poets Meet Politics 2022 International Open.

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Tony Hoagland, Laura Kasischke, Dean Young, Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, Galway Kinnell, Jose Saramago, Fernando Pessoa, Curzio Malaparte, Sharon Olds, Tom Lux, Campbell McGrath, Paisley Rekdal, John le Carré, Hilary Mantel, Cormac McCarthy, Terrance Hayes.
What I'm reading now: 
The Light and the Mirror by Hilary Mantel, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago, XX by Campbell McGrath, Skin by Curzio Malaparte, The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, Appropriate: a Provocation by Paisley Rekdal, Pessoa: A Biography by Richard Zenith

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Born in: 
Bellefonte, PA
Pennsylvania
Raised in: 
Millheim, PA
Pennsylvania
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Jul 03, 2023