Mercifully Brief Biography

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Michael Salander (born 1954) has a background in graphic design and photography, but has always written. His first published poem (whilst still at school) was included in a Jonathan Cape anthology (Fire Words) compiled by the writer and anti-racist campaigner Chris Searle, who wrote: ‘I hope that you keep on writing poetry, you have a power with words’. 

 

In 2013 he took a break from design and returned to full-time education, graduating with a first class BA honours degree in Creative Writing/English Literature. He was shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize (2015), the Bridport Prize for Flash Fiction (2022), and the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize (2022), as well as being longlisted for many more. To date, his work has been published in seven anthologies (links to each are provided on the Links page). You can read an interview with him here at the London Independent Story Prize. In 2017 he suffered a mild stroke, but he discharged himself from hospital after a few days and walked home, so he's fine and plans to stay that way.