Overview

A three time $17,000 California Arts Council grant recipient, Michael McLaughlin has worked for 25 years as an Artist-in-Residence at Atascadero State Hospital, a maximum security forensic facility, as a Contract Artist with the California Department of Corrections, with California Youth Authority (w/ incarcerated adults & youth), and as San Luis Obispo county Area Coordinator for California Poets in the Schools.

A graduate of The University of Southern California’s Master of Professional Writing program, McLaughlin’s written one novel, Western People Show Their Faces and three books of poetry, Ped Xing, The Upholstery of Heaven and Countless Cinemas.

Originally from San Francisco, McLaughlin lives on the central California coast with his brilliant and beautiful wife. Currently shopping around his second novel, Gang of One, McLaughlin was Poet Laureate of San Luis Obispo, California in 2003.