List of Michigan writers

Following is a list of writers from Michigan, either born there or living there during their writing career.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Children's books

• Verna Aardema, children's book author of many ethnic themed works (Ashanti, Zanzibari, Akamba and Ayutla Mexican sources among others) and winner of the Caldecott Medal for Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears (born in New Era)
• K. A. Applegate, children's and young adult author (including the Animorphs, Remnants and Everworld series; she also write under the pseudonyms Katherine Kendall, L. E. Blair, Pat Polari, Nicholas Stevens, and A.R. Plumb (born in Michigan)
• Christopher Paul Curtis, children's author whose Bud, Not Buddy is the only book to have won both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King award for best achievement for an African-American writer (born in Flint)
• Marguerite de Angeli, children's book writer and illustrator best known for The Door in the Wall for which she won the Newbery Award in 1950, and being one of the first inductees of the Michigan Women's Hall in of Fame (born in Lapeer)
• Laurie Keller, children's book writer and illustrator best known for The Scrambled States of America and Grandpa Gazillion's Number Yard (born in Muskegon)
• Robert Sabuda, children's pop-up book artist and paper engineer (born in Pinckey)
• Jon Scieszka, children's book author best known for his collaboration with illustrator Lane Smith on such books as The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Stories and the Time Warp Trio series (born in Flint)
• Chris Van Allsburg, children's writer, twice winner of the Caldecott Medal for Jumanji and The Polar Express (born in Grand Rapids)
• Aileen Fisher (1906 - 2002) Author of 100+ children's books (born in Iron River)

Fiction and Fantasy

• Nelson Algren, winning novelist best known for such books as A Walk on the Wild Side and The Man with the Golden Arm-- which won the 1950 National Book Award (born in Detroit)
• John Edward Ames, Western writer (born in Monroe County)
• Harriette Simpson Arnow, novelist best known for her novels The Dollmaker and Hunter's Horn (born in Wayne County, Kentucky; raised in Cincinnati, Ohio and Detroit; later settled in Ann Arbor)
• Robert Asprin, science fiction and fantasy writer (born in St. Johns)
• Deb Baker, mystery author, writes the Gertie Johnson Yooper mysteries, born in Escanaba, Michigan)
• Rex Beach, novelist best known for his 1906 novel The Spoilers (born in Atwood)
• John Bellairs, mystery novelist (born in Marshall)
• Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of two short story collections, Women & Other Animals (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999; Simon & Schuster, 2003) and American Salvage (Wayne State University Press, 2009) and the novel Q Road (Scribner, 2003) (born in Kalamazoo)
• James Oliver Curwood, novelist and conservationist best known for his novel The Grizzly King (born in Owosso)
• Pete Dexter, novelist and 1988 National Book Award-winner -- for Paris Trout (born in Pontiac)
• Edna Ferber, novelist of such works as Showboat, Saratoga Trunk and the 1925 Pulitzer Prize winner for So Big, playwright and member of the Algonquin Round Table (born in Kalamazoo)
• Jeffrey Eugenides, novelist of such books as The Virgin Suicides and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize winner Middlesex (born in Detroit)
• Alice Fulton, short story writer best known for The Nightingales of Troy (born in Troy, New York; moved to Ypsilanti)
• Dean Garrison, crime fiction author (born in Adrian)
• Donald Goines, "street tradition" novelist best known for his Never Die Alone
• Aaron Hamburger, short story writer and novelist (born in Detroit)
• James Hynes, author of The Wild Colonial Boy and Kings of Infinite Space (born in Okemos)
• Janet Kauffman, novelist best known for Places in the World a Woman Could Walk and poet (born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; moved to Hudson)
• William X. Kienzle, former Catholic priest whose mystery/crime story writer best-known for such books as The Rosary Murders (born in Detroit)
• Harold R. "Hal" King (1945-2010), suspense novelist known for Paradigm Red,, Four Days, The Taskmaster, and Closing Ceremonies (resided in Grand Rapids)
• Elmore Leonard, novelist and screenwriter known for such works among many others as Get Shorty, The Big Bounce and Rum Punch (born in New Orleans; raised in Detroit)
• Ander Monson, poet, essayist, novelist , born in Houghton, Michigan.
• Thomas McGuane, novelist known for such works as Ninety-Two in the Shade and husband of actress Margot Kidder (born in Wyandotte)
• Terry McMillan, author best known for her Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Disappearing Acts (born in Port Huron)
• Joyce Carol Oates, novelist three times nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the National Book Award -- for them (born in Lockport, New York; lived in metro Detroit and Windsor, Ontario for over decade before moving to Princeton, New Jersey)
• Alice Randall, author of The Wind Done Gone, a parody of Gone With The Wind. (born in Detroit)
• Lev Raphael, author of 21 books including mysteries, memoirs, and short story collections (born in New York)
• K.J. Stevens, novelist and short story writer (born in Alpena)
• Glendon Swarthout, novelist and short story writer twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, winner of the O. Henry Prize and known for such works as The Shootist and Bless the Beasts and Children (born in Pinckney)
• John D. Voelker, novelist who wrote under the pen name Robert Traver, best known for his Anatomy of a Murder (born in Ishpeming)

Journalists and nonfiction

• Bruce Ableson, inventor of Open Diary, arguably the first online blogging community (born in West Bloomfield)
• Mitch Albom, nonfiction author, sports writer, and radio talk show host (born in Trenton, New Jersey; moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; lives in metro Detroit)
• Joel Bakan, legal writer and Canadian lawyer best known for his 2004 book The Corporation which was made into a film the same year and won 25 international awards (born in Lansing)
• Ray Stannard Baker, 19th century muckraking journalist (born in Lansing)
• Michael Barone, journalist/pundit, editor of The Almanac of American Politics (born in Highland Park)
• Amanda Carpenter, author, former correspondent for Human Events and Townhall.com (born in Montrose)
• Jill Carroll, journalist, Iraqi terrorists' kidnap victim (born in Ann Arbor)
• Bruce Catton, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian who focused largely on Civil War topics (born in Petoskey)
• Zev Chafets, journalist and columnist for the New York Daily News, born in Pontiac)
• Jonathan Chait, senior editor at The New Republic and columnist for the Los Angeles Times (grew up in the Detroit suburbs)
• David Chardavoyne, legal writer known for A Hanging in Detroit (born in Ohio, moved to metro Detroit)
• Paul de Kruif, science writer and microbiologist (born in Zeeland)
• Fred Dustin, early 20th century writer on the American West (born in Glens Falls, New York; settled and died in Saginaw)
• M. F. K. Fisher, food writer (born in Albion)
• Jennifer Eaton Gokmen, literary nonfiction writer best known for international bestseller Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey (born in Wayne, raised in West Bloomfield, in 1994 moved to Istanbul, Turkey)
• John Grogan, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and author of best-selling memoir Marley and Me (born in Detroit)
• Ben Hamper, journalist and nonfiction writer best known for his memoir Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line (born in Flint, Michigan)
• Michael Kinsley, founding editor of Slate, former Crossfire panelist, former American Editor of The Guardian, and current columnist for Politico (born in Detroit)
• John J. Miller, national political reporter for National Review (born in Detroit)
• Elvis Mitchell, New York Times film critic (born in Detroit)
• Michael Moore, documentary filmmaker and nonfiction writer, known for Stupid White Men (born in Davison)
• Jay Nordlinger, senior editor of National Review (born in Ann Arbor)
• Isabel Paterson, author best known for her 1943 treatise The God of the Machine; co-founder of American libertarianism (born on Manitoulin Island, Canada; grew up on a rural Upper Peninsula ranch)
• Joseph Sobran, paleo-conservative syndicated columnist (raised in Ypsilanti)
• Helen Thomas, journalist, former member of the White House Press Corps (born in Winchester, Kentucky; moved to Detroit)

Playwrights and screenwriters

• Ron Allen, playwright (born in Detroit)
• Bruce Campbell, actor and autobiographer (born in Royal Oak, Michigan); good childhood friends and adulthood project partners with the Raimi brothers
• Jeff Daniels, actor, songwriter, playwright, and screenwriter--born in Georgia (U.S. state) but raised in Chelsea, Michigan
• Ron Milner, playwright (born in Detroit)
• Neil LaBute, playwright, director, screenwriter (born in Detroit)
• Terry Rossio, screenwriter and film producer (born in Kalamazoo)
• Ivan Raimi, screenwriter (born in Detroit)
• Sam Raimi, screenwriter, director, producer (born in Detroit)
• Heather Raffo, playwright, actress (raised in Michigan)

Poets

• John Malcolm Brinnin, poet (born in Halifax Nova Scotia; raised in Detroit)
• Jim Daniels, poet (born in Detroit)
• Stuart Dybek, poet (born in Chicago, Illinois; lives in Kalamazoo)
• Clayton Eshleman, poet (born in Indianapolis, moved to Ypsilanti)
• Carolyn Forché, poet (born in Detroit)
• Robert Frost - From 1921-22, Frost moved to Ann Arbor to accept a fellowship teaching at the University of Michigan. In 1924, Robert Frost accepted a lifetime appointment at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor as a Fellow in Letters where he resided until 1927. Frost's Ann Arbor home is now at The Henry Ford.
• Alice Fulton, MacArthur "Genius Award" poet (born in Troy, New York; moved to Ypsilanti)
• Edgar Guest, poet (born in Birmingham, England; moved to Detroit)
• Jim Harrison, poet and novelist (born in Grayling)
• Robert Hayden, poet (born in Detroit; moved to Ann Arbor)
• Conrad Hilberry, poet (born in Ferndale; moved to Kalamazoo)
• Lawrence Joseph, poet (born in Detroit)
• Jane Kenyon, poet (born in Ann Arbor)
• Naomi Long Madgett, poet (born in Norfolk, Virginia, raised in East Orange, New Jersey, moved to Detroit and Ypsilanti)
• Thomas Lynch, poet (born in Detroit)
• John Frederick Nims, poet (born in Muskegon)
• Marge Piercy, poet and novelist (born in Detroit)
• Dudley Randall, poet, Broadside Press founder (born in Detroit)
• Theodore Roethke, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (born in Saginaw)
• Richard Tillinghast, poet (born in Memphis, Tennessee, lives in Ann Arbor)
• Nancy Willard, poet, novelist, children's writer and literary critic (born in Ann Arbor)
• Philip Levine, poet (born in Detroit)

Others

• Wayne Dyer, self-help book writer (born in Detroit)
• James Finn Garner, humorist {born in Dearborn)
• Jerry B. Jenkins, religious writer, "as told to" biographer, romance writer (born in Kalamazoo)
• Ring Lardner, Sr., satirist, short story writer and sports columnist (born in Niles)
• Robert McKee, well-known creative writing instructor (born in Detroit)
• Peter McWilliams, writer and cannabis legalization advocate (born in Detroit)
• Stewart Edward White, writer (born in Grand Rapids)

References and further reading

• Gavrilovich, Peter and Bill McGraw (2000). The Detroit Almanac. Detroit Free Press. ISBN 0937247341. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
• Gavrilovich, Peter and Bill McGraw (2006). The Detroit Almanac, 2nd edition. Detroit Free Press. ISBN 9780937247488.