11 Facts About Anne Michaels

Anne Michaels was born on 15 April 1958 and is a Canadian poet and novelist whose work has been translated and published in over 45 countries.

Anne Michaels's books have garnered dozens of international awards including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Lannan Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Americas.

Anne Michaels is the recipient of honorary degrees, the Guggenheim Fellowship and many other honours.

Anne Michaels has been shortlisted for the Governor General's Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, twice shortlisted for the Giller Prize and twice long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award.

Anne Michaels was the poet laureate of Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 2016 to 2019, and she is perhaps best known for her novel Fugitive Pieces, which was adapted for the screen in 2007.

Anne Michaels won the 2024 Giller Prize for her novel Held.

Anne Michaels attended Vaughan Road Academy and then later the University of Toronto, where she is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of English.

The recipient of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Americas and the Canadian Authors' Association Award, and a finalist for both the Governor General's Award and the Trillium Award, Anne Michaels secured her place among the finest Canadian poets early in her career.

In 2011, Anne Michaels contributed to the Bush Theatre's 24-hour performance of Sixty-Six Books to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, providing 66 playwrights, poets, songwriters, and novelists - of all faiths and none, from over a dozen countries and across five continents - the opportunity to respond to some of the oldest stories ever told.

Anne Michaels returned to poetry with the release of her book-length poem, Correspondences, an historic and personal elegy in an accordion-style format that can be read frontwards or backwards.

In October 2015, Anne Michaels began her tenure as the poet laureate of Toronto, succeeding George Elliott Clarke.