About

Poet Michael Favala Goldman (b. 1966) is also a Danish literary translator, educator, editor, and jazz clarinetist.

Goldman’s seven books of original poetry include Who has time for this? (2020), Slow Phoenix (2021), Small Sovereign (2021), If you were here you would feel at home (2022), This May Sound Familiar (2022), Someday all of this will be yours (2023), and What Minimal Joy (2023).

Among his seventeen translated books are Dependency (Penguin Classics) by Tove Ditlevsen, The Water Farm Trilogy by Cecil Bødker, and Something To Live Up To, Selected Poems of Benny Andersen.

Literary Work and Reviews

His work has appeared in scores of literary journals and has received rave reviews in the New York Times and The London Times. For a complete list, see the Bibliography.

Poetry Critique Groups

Goldman lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, USA, where he has been running in-person and virtual bi-monthly poetry critique groups since 2018. All poets are welcome.

Jazz Musician

Michael performs on clarinet and bass clarinet with his band, Now’s the Time, at venues around Western Mass. As a sextet with three horns, Now’s the Time plays a mix of jazz standards, blues, and swing, to bring a positive vibe to any event.

A Poet’s Place

Michael teaches this six-session class in the spring and fall at the Northampton Center for the Arts. The structure of the class is based on the role of the poet – drafting new work, revision, submission, reading in public, and more. This class helps poets to refine their voice and fill out their identity as a writer. Read more here.

Professional Roles

He also serves as Chair of the Program Committee for Straw Dogs Writers Guild and as Member of the Board of Directors for the Northampton Center for the Arts.

Inquiries and Consultations

For inquiries regarding individual editing consultations for translation or poetry manuscripts, for guest teaching, or for speaking engagements, please see the media kit, or contact him directly.

Feedback for 'A Poet's Place'

Michael is an incredible teacher

I’ve told all the writers in my poetry club that Michael is an incredible teacher. The range of what we covered was so valuable. In the end it felt like an entire semester in just six sessions. It was truly an A+ experience, rather life-changing.

– C.R.

Excellent facilitation skills

This was an excellent experience and that I greatly appreciate Michael’s excellent facilitation skills. He is outstanding at keeping participants on course with the goals, and provides excellent curriculum design for the program. I like that there was a substantive amount of guidance and resources provided in the course, include sharing opportunities for submissions to high quality publications. I would encourage all poets to participate in this course

– C.D.

He makes it feel very possible to start getting my work out to an audience.

I really valued the chance to workshop poems and receive tangible feedback. I learned about the editing process and got new inspirations for prompts. I valued the community aspect and getting to meet with and work with fellow emerging poets. I also appreciated the approachable and tangible suggestions Michael had for entering the poetry community locally. He makes it feel very possible to start getting my work out to an audience.

– M.N.

I learned a great deal

Michael is extremely organized, generous with information for writers including revisions, suggestions for titles, avenues for publication, and very thoughtful with responses. The environment he creates is a comfortable and “safe” space in which we all can try new approaches without fear. The pace of the class is excellent: each week building on the previous. Standing up to perform our work was daunting and useful.

I learned a great deal…cannot say enough about that.