BACK TO OUR TEAM | MICHELLE TARANSKY • 1:1 CREATIVE WRITING INSTRUCTOR (POETRY, FICTION, & CREATIVE NONFICTION) • 1:1 COLLEGE ADVISOR
Michelle Taransky
Michelle is a poet, fiction writer and teacher living outside Philadelphia. Taransky teaches creative writing and critical writing at the University of Pennsylvania, where she won a Beltran Award for Innovative Teaching and Mentoring.
She is the author of the poetry books Barn Burned, Then , selected by Marjorie Welish for the Omnidawn Poetry Prize, and Sorry Was in the Woods, published by Omnidawn in 2013. She is also author of a poetry chapbook, Abramowitz-Goldberg (Factory Hollow Press, 2020). Taransky’s poems have appeared in The Adroit Journal, American Poetry Review, Fence, jubilat, and Huffington Post, among others.
At Penn, she is a Contributing Editor for Jacket2, after serving as Reviews Editor from 2011-2024, and teaches Fiction and Nonfiction in the Master of Liberal Arts Program. Since 2009, she has hosted a reading series at Kelly Writers House, “But Company,” which pairs student writers with visiting authors. Previously, Taransky has taught writing at the University of Iowa, where she obtained her Master of Fine Arts in Poetry, as well as Temple University, the Iowa Young Writers Studio, the University of the Arts, and Kelly Writers House’s Summer Workshop for Young Writers. She has worked as Programs Coordinator at The Poetry Center of Chicago, a research assistant at the University of Iowa International Writing Program, and the Assistant to the Director at the Kelly Writers House.
Click here to view Michelle’s UPenn Faculty Profile.
Click here to view Michelle’s PennSound contributions.
Pronouns • she/her.
Select work by Michelle available online
This Year They Cast a New Funny Girl, The Adroit Journal
Q&A American Poetry, Poetry Society of America
Thinking, It’s Ok to Discuss, Academy of American Poets
Three Poems, Iterant