Michael Poage was born in Virginia and has lived and worked in New England, California, Montana, Kansas and overseas in Latvia, Palestine, Mexico, Gaza and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has twelve books of poems published prior to this new book. He worked various jobs before becoming ordained in the United Church of Christ and serving three congregations in Kansas. He has also taught at Friends University, Wichita State University, the University of Latvia and Dzemal Bijedic University in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he also served as Poet-in-Residence, 2017-18. When not in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he and his wife, the historian and writer, Dr. Gretchen Eick, live in Wichita, Kansas.

You Must Have Your Famine