Michael Mullen
Michael Mullen is a queer writer and spoken word artist writing in both Scots and Standard English. Their work interrogates the relationship between art, class and identity. The writing is experimental with both content and form, and they take influence from various types of poetry and writing, from lyrical poetry to humorous modern ballads, recently winning the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award 2022 for their unpublished collection Lay Down with Dogs.
Their work has appeared in the Neu Reekie pamphlet Neu Voices, Bella Caledonia, the Stryvling Press anthologies, Pharos and Time and Tide, and the Mill Magazine.
Michael is the recipient of the Helen Lamb Dissertation Prize awarded by Kathleen Jamie and Kevin MacNeil. They have been commissioned for poetry from BBC Sounds, and made it to the semi-finals of BBC Words First.
Michael has performed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival as part of Michael Pedersen’s Good Grief Salon, and the Sky Arts programme, Life and Rhymes with Benjamin Zephaniah. They competed in the 2022 Scottish National Slam Championship.
A fixture on the spoken word scene they have headlined and supported various spoken word nights throughout Scotland, including support slots for Hollie McNish as part of her Slug Tour, and at Edinburgh’s Push The Boat Out Festival.
Text by City of Poets.