Ken Meisel is a poet and psychotherapist from the Detroit area. He is a 2012 Kresge Arts Literary Fellow, Pushcart Prize nominee, Swan Duckling chapbook contest winner, winner of the Liakoura Prize and the author of eight poetry collections: Our Common Souls: New & Selected Poems of Detroit (Blue Horse Press, 2020), Mortal Lullabies (FutureCycle Press, 2018), The Drunken Sweetheart at My Door (FutureCycle Press, 2015), Scrap Metal Mantra Poems (Main Street Rag, 2013), Beautiful Rust (Bottom Dog Press, 2009), Just Listening (Pure Heart Press, 2007), Before Exiting (Pure Heart Press, 2006), and Sometimes the Wind (March Street Press, 2002). His work is in over 100 national magazines including Cream City Review, Rattle, Dressing Room Poetry Journal, Midwestern Gothic, Concho River Review, San Pedro River Review, Boxcar Review, Origins Journal, The Bookends Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Lake Effect, Soundings East, Gravel Magazine, and Lullwater.
He was the featured poet interview in Rattle Magazine’s September 2017 “Rust Belt Issue” and the featured poet in the movie Detroit: Tough Luck Stories (2019).