Michelle Regalado Deatrick is an American politician, activist, and poet. She serves on the Democratic National Committee, where she is working to establish the DNC’s first Environmental Council and recognition for small farm rights. She also serves on the Board of the Southeast Michigan Land Conservancy, and is the founder and chair of the Washtenaw County Environmental Council.
Deatrick’s poetry and fiction have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, American Literary Review, Mid-American Review, Copper Nickel, Best New American Voices, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the Chautauqua Poetry Contest, and received third place in the Women’s National Book Association 2015 Poetry Context and second runner-up in the Boulevard Emerging Poets’ Contest. A finalist for both the Rita Dove Poetry Award and the James Wright Poetry Contest, Deatrick has received Fellowships from MacDowell and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and multiple residencies from the Ragdale Foundation. She is currently working to complete her first book of poetry.
After receiving a B.A. from Wesleyan, Deatrick served as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching in East Africa. She earned a master’s degree from Harvard, and worked as a technical writer and editor and began writing fiction and poetry, eventually earning an M.F.A. in fiction from the University of Michigan, where she received the Colby Fellowship, Hopwood Awards in fiction and poetry, the Bain-Swigget Prize for poetry, and a graduate classics translation prize.
