Anne-Marie Oomen

Anne-Marie Oomen is a teaching writer and author of Pulling Down the Barn and House of Fields (Wayne State University Press) both Michigan Notable Books; two chapbooks of poetry, Seasons of  the Sleeping Bear and Moniker (with Ray Nargis); and a collection of poetry, Uncoded Woman, (Milkweed Editions). She is also represented in New Poems of the Third Coast:  Contemporary Michigan Poetry and edited Looking Over My Shoulder: Reflections on the Twentieth Century, an anthology of seniors' essays funded by Michigan Humanities Council. She has written and produced seven plays including the award-winning Northern Belles, inspired by oral histories of women farmers; Wives of An American King, based on the James Jesse Strang story; and Recovering Ruth, inspired by Ruth Douglass’ story on Isle Royale. Her most recent, Whaddaya Give, a play with music, continues her dramatic series inspired by Northern Michigan’s history.  She is faculty editor for the Interlochen Review, founding editor of Dunes Review, president of Michigan Writers, Inc., and serves as instructor of creative writing at Interlochen Arts Academy and instructor of the Solstice MFA at Pine Manor College.  Her forthcoming essay collection, An American Map, is due out in 2010.  She and her husband, David Early, have built their own home in Empire, Michigan where they live with a large cat named Walt Whitman.