Michele Madigan Somerville is the author of Black Irish (poems, Plain View Press, 2009) and WISEGAL (Ten Pell Books, 2001; Revised, 2018). Glamourous Life (poems) will be published by Rain Mountain Press in January of 2020. Somerville's poems have appeared in “Mudfish,” “The Nervous Breakdown,” “Downtown Brooklyn,” “Hanging Loose“ and in other journals. Her poem "Portrait of A Woman Beside Her Marker" won First Place in New York’s W.B. Society’s 2000 Poetry Competition (Billy Collins judged.) and in 2003, Charles Simic selected "Lonicera Frangrantissima" for Honorable Mention in Dublin in Ireland's Eason Books' Davoren Hanna Poetry Contest. In 2012, Bauhan Books selected Glamourous Life for an honorable mention in its May Sarton Contest.
Somerville's essays have appeared in Religion Dispatches, Harvard Divinity Bulletin and The New York Times, and her book reviews, in The Poetry Project Newsletter, Variety and Book Marks.
Somerville holds an MFA in Poetry from Brooklyn College (CUNY) where she worked as graduate fellow, won the school's English Department's MacArthur Award/scholarship for Poetry, and received a the Louis B. Goodman Award/scholarship for Woman-Centered Writing and completed a thesis under the guidance of Allen Ginsberg. More recently, in May of 2019, Michele Madigan Somerville earned a second Master’s degree (MTS) at Harvard Divinity School where she focused on religion and literature, Roman Catholic theology, Bible, and the intersection of politics, education and religion.
Somerville also has extensive experience working as an educator. Before leaving classroom teaching to give birth to three children in four years, about two decades ago, Michele Madigan Somerville worked for four years as an elementary and high school teacher in Brooklyn and the Bronx (NYC), and for over a decade as a lecturer in writing at CUNY schools. She also taught creative and scholarly writing for three years at SUNY (Purchase College) and continues to work with students on a one-to-one basis. As well, Somerville continues to work as an educational activist, pro bono, in schools and community settings.
Somerville is currently at work on Preducation, an education memoir, Stations of Light (a volume of sacred poetry), and Sucker Punch, a novel. She currently works as an editor, writer and tutor, and lives in Brooklyn with/near her family.