Michael Liebler
Associate professor of teaching
586-294-7378
1021.2, 5057 Woodward Avenue
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Michael Liebler
M. L. Liebler is a internationally known and widely published Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist and arts organizer. He was named The 2017-2018 Murray E. Jackson Scholar in the Arts Award at Wayne State University. Liebler is the author of 15 books and chapbooks including the Award winning Wide Awake in Someone Else's Dream (Wayne State University Press 2008) featuring poems written in and about Russia, Israel, Germany, Alaska and Detroit. Wide Awake won both The Paterson Poetry Prize for Literary Excellenceand The American Indie Book Award for 2009.
In 2005, he was named St. Clair Shores (his hometown) first poet laureate. Liebler has read and performed his work in Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, Russia, China, France, UK, Macao, Italy, Germany, Spain, Finland and most of the 50 States. M.L. Liebler has taught English, creative writing, American studies, labor studies and world literature at Wayne State University in Detroit since 1980. He is the founding director of both The National Writer's Voice Project in Detroit and the Springfed Arts: Metro Detroit Writers Literary Arts Organization. He was selected as Best Detroit Poet by The Detroit Free Press and Detroit's Metro Time and in he is the nation's first ever artist in residence for a Public Library at The Chelsea District Library for 2008-2009. In 2005, Liebler became the co-editor.
In 2010, he received The Barnes & Noble Poets & Writers Writers for Writers Award with Maxine Hong Kingston & Junot Diaz. In 2011, his groundbreaking anthology Working Words: Punching the Clock & Kicking Out the James (Coffee House Press) was given a 2011 Library of Michigan Notable Book Award. In 2017, Liebler received two Library of Michigan Notable Book Awards for both his new collection of poems entitled I Want to Be Once (Wayne State University Press / Made in Michigan Series) and for Heaven Was Detroit: An Anthology of Detroit Music Essays from Jazz to Hiphop (The Wayne State University Press Painted Turtle Series) Editor. Bob Seger's House: An Anthology of Michigan Short Stories (Co-Editor with Mike Delp). Both Heaven Was Detroit and Bob Seger's House are Finalist for the prestigious Forward Book Awards.
Forthcoming recordings and vinyl include Poetry Score: M. L. Liebler and Al Kooper and KING by M. L. Liebler & Steve King. The beginning of 2020 saw the release of RESPECT: Poets on Detroit Music edited by M. L. Liebler & Jim Daniels (Michigan State University Press 2020). RESPECT just received the 2021 Library of Michigan Notable Book Award and The Tillie Olson Book Award for 2022. He was awarded The Michigan Humanities Champion of the Year in 2021.
Research interest(s)/area of expertise
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- Creative writing
- Detroit studies
- World fiction
- War & Literature
- The Vietnam War through Literature
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Education
M.A.Awards and grants
- Awarded, Library for the State of Michigan Notable Book Award for 2011 and two books in 2017 by Michigan Library Association
- Awarded 2016 U.S. State Department Cultural and Educational Fulbright Specialist Grant for June 2016 to teach Detroit Studies and Culture at Leuphana University of Luneberg, Germany / lectures and classroom visits 4 June – 20 June 2016
- Awarded 2016-2017 Learning Community Grant for The Motown & Global Detroit Living Authors Learning Community and classes by The Provost’s Office for Retention Program 17 March 2016
- Awarded Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs 2016 Mini Arts Grant. 20 February 2016
- Selected Wayne State University Humanities Center Resident Scholar status for 2015-2016
- Awarded Michigan Humanities Council Grant for 4th Annual Midtown Literary Walk. 2015
- Awarded President’s Enhancement Grant for Arts & Humanities. 2014. Wayne State University
- Awarded a 2014 U.S. State Department Cultural and Educational Specialist Grant for May 2014 to tour Israel and West Bank for readings, lectures and classroom visits 15 May – 30 May 2014
- Wayne State University Student Senate Faculty of the Month April 2014
- Presented by Student Senate President and Dean of Students at Wayne State
- Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs 2014 Literary Arts Grant
- State of Michigan Arts Grant
- Society of Professional Journalist Features/Cover Story Award for cover story in The Metro Times. Presented 2013 at The Society for Professional Journalism Annual Conference. Troy, MI
- The 2013-2014 Knight Foundation Innovative Detroit Arts Award
- The Knight Foundation Detroit Program. Miami, FL
- Wayne State University Alumni Faculty Award for Community Service
- Fall2013 presented by The WSU Alumni Association
- Awarded Fulbright Specialist Status by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to Teach December 2012 at Tel Aviv University, Israel
- Selected by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to Teach during Spring 2012 in Kabul, Afghanistan and other Afghanistan cities. May 3-14, 2012
- WSU Student Senate Faculty of the Year Award May 2012
- Selected for Two Year Term, Advisory Board, The Kresge Arts Foundation Individual Artists Award for Metro Detroit 2012-2014
- Awarded Wayne State University President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for 2011. April 2011. Wayne State University. Detroit, MI
- Awarded Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award 2010 by Poets & Writers, Inc. New York City 18 March 2010
Selected publications
- Liebler, M. L. I Want to Be Once: New Poems. Wayne State University Press. Detroit, MI. April 2016
- Liebler, M.L., Delp Michael. (Editors) Bob Seger’s House: An Anthology of Michigan Fiction. Wayne State University Press. Detroit, MI. April 2016
- Liebler, M. L. (Editor) Heaven Was Detroit: Essays on Detroit Music from Jazz to Hip Hop & Beyond. Wayne State University Press. Detroit, MI. August 2016
- Liebler, M.L. (Editor and Introduction). Poetic Resonance: An Oakwood Hospital Anthology of Writing V. Oakwood Healthcare Organization, Dearborn, MI. January 2011. (online)
- Liebler, M.L. (Editor & Author) Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams. Coffeehouse Press, MN . October 2010
- Liebler, M.L. (Editor and Introduction). Poetic Resonance: An Oakwood Hospital Anthology of Writing IV. Oakwood Healthcare Organization, Dearborn, MI. January 2010. (online)
- Liebler, M.L. Momenti nel Passato che Risplendono/The Moment That Shines. Chapbook. Italian/English The Ridgeway Press. Detroit, MI. April 2010
- Liebler, M.L, Wide Awake in Someone Else’s Dream. Wayne
- State University Press. Detroit, MI. January 2008
- Liebler, M. L. Greatest Hits Chapbook Series. Pudding House Press. Columbus, OH. April 2005
- Liebler, M.L. The Fragrant Benediction of Life (bilingual English/Russian). Translated by Alexis Dayen. Chelinsky Press & Review. New York, NY. 2004
- Liebler, M.L. The Moon A Box: Poems of This World (w/CD) Western Michigan University Press April 2004
- Liebler, M. L. Poems from Pok Fa Lum: The China Poems. XOXOX Press, Yellow Springs, OH April 2002
- Liebler, M.L. & Melba Joyce Boyd (co-editors). Abandon Automobile Poems from 20th Century Detroit. Wayne State University Press. Fall 2001
- Liebler, M.L. Breaking the Voodoo & Other Poems. Adastra Press. Easthampton, MA Summer 2001)
- Liebler, M. L. Written In Rain: Selected & New Poems 1985-2000. Tebot Bach Books. Los Angeles, CA. (April 2000)
- Liebler, M.L. Brooding the Heartlands. Bottom Dog Press. Working Dog Series. Bowling Green State University, Ohio. (Fall 1998)
- Liebler, M.L. Stripping the Adult Century Bare: New & Selected Writings. Viet Nam Generation Journal & Press: New Haven, CT (April 1995)
Courses taught by Michael Liebler
Winter Term 2025 (future)
Fall Term 2024 (current)
Winter Term 2024
Fall Term 2023
Spring-Summer Term 2023
Winter Term 2023
Fall Term 2022
- ELR4700 - Senior Seminar
- ENG2800 - Techniques of Imaginative Writing
- ENG5860 - Topics in Creative Writing