About Me

Michael Holmes writes poetry, lyrics and music and hosts the wrestling / storytelling / business podcast BOOKMARKS. He’s also published fiction, cultural criticism and literary journalism. Today he’s finally putting all the years he devoted to that PhD at York University to work as a narrative doctor: he sees your story and can show you how to talk about the content you create. (Reach out and ask.) His widely acclaimed collections of poetry include James I Wanted to Ask You, Parts Unknown, Satellite Dishes from the Future Bakery, and Got No Flag at All. His novel Watermelon Row has been celebrated as an “emotional, physical, suspenseful, intricately plotted gutter novel”—but today he thinks of it as a twenty-four-hour investigation of why birds are better than man. Currently the Executive Editor at ECW Press and the facilitator of the misFit imprint family, since the early 1990s he has edited more than 700 books. In the mid 80s he played guitar and bass and sang with the three-piece Brampton punk band Stigmata Martyr; forty years later he strapped on a Novo Serus J, decided to put in the 10,000 hours he should have got around to at 14, overcame terror, got back on stage and teamed with his partner Emm Gryner to co-write and release the album Business & Pleasure. As Killer Cat he is a founding member of the band Queen Beach Killer Cat: their first 7-inch single “Douchetown” is out now and features a wicked Phil Collen guitar solo—the flip side is a surprising cover of Van Halen’s “Why Can’t This Be Love.” He lives in London, Ontario.