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Eve Anthony Hanninen: What did you like about working on your chosen Option? And if you supplied any artwork with your
project, did the pictures inspire your poems?
Denise Calvetti Michaels: My favorite part of the project was the intrigue in pairing poems and photographs, some of which
I supplied.
EAH: What attracts you to writing poetry? When have you learned the most about poetry?
DCM: The lyrical quality of language draws me to poetry. It began in childhood with lullabies sung in Italian dialect.
Today I sang one to Ciena Loren, my new granddaughter.
Denise Calvetti Michaels' poems are published in City Works Press, Rock Salt Plum Review, Crosscurrents, Paterson Literary
Review, Wetlands Review, Literary Mama, Voices in Wartime, Poets Against the Way, King County Poetry on Buses and Real
Change Newspaper. Her work is included in the following anthologies: Between Sleeps, En Theos Press 2006; In
Praise of Farmland, Whit Press 2003; Tree Walk, Cambium Press 2004 & 2005; Mute Note Earthward, Washington
Poetry Association 2005, and Poetry at Lehani's, Minotaur Press. In 2004, her poems received the Crosscurrents Prize
from the Washington Community and Technical College Humanities Association. Her memoir, Polenta, is included in The
Milk of Almonds, Italian American Woman on Food and Culture, Feminist Press, 2002.
Denise teaches Multicultural Communication, Human Relations and Civic Engagement at Cascadia Community College in Bothell,
WA. She received a BA in English from the University of South Florida and earned an MA in Human Development from Pacific
Oaks College. She plans to enter the Goddard College MFA program in 2007.
In 2001 Denise and her colleagues at King County Child Care Program received the Dr. Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award
for their work in King County Human Services to address institutional racism.
This is Denise's 2nd appearance in The Centrifugal Eye.
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