portrait of the artist as a young bore
"To be closer to God
is not to be reverant
or moral
or even good.
It is to be alive."
from the poem "Shelley's Thoughts As He Is Dying" by Michael Armstrong.
Michael is a writer/actor/director recently nearing completion of his BA at UNBC after a short break from school. He was born in California in 1955, and after immigrating to Canada with his family, became a Canadian citizen in 1971. He has worked on the green chain like many British Columbians; and as a waiter, an actor, a newspaper editor, a janitor, a labourer in a carboard plant, and for 15 years, a building contractor and designer in the Gulf Islands. Two years ago, he hung up his tool belt and went back to university. For two years he managed Art Space, a gallery and performance space over Books and Company in Prince George.
Over the past twenty years, he has acted in theatres, schools, cafes, community halls, and fields from Salt Spring Island to Toronto. Since coming to Prince George, he has published (through his small Roaring Heart Press) five chapbooks, including a festschrift for Barry McKinnon, and a play. He has two daughters that live too far away and a mother who is a poet. Soon, he will be a teacher and no longer be dirt poor, merely underpaid.
He writes about love, history, and spirit; in various combinations. His recent play, In Their Nightgowns, Dancing is about the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Appearances in Reflections on Water