Michael Rothenberg was a poet, editor, artist, and publisher of the online literary magazine BigBridge.org, co-founder of 100 thousand Poets for Change (www.100tpc.org),The "Read A Poem To A Child" Initiative, and co-founder of Poets In Need, a non-profit501(c), assisting poets in crisis. He published over 20 books of poetry, most recently The Pillars (Quaranzine Press) and Drawing the Shade (Dos Madres Press). His editorial work includes several volumes in the Penguin Poets series: Overtime by Philip Whalen, As Ever by Joanne Kyger, David's Copy by David Meltzer, and Way More West by Ed Dorn. He was also editor of The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen published by Wesleyan University Press. He was Florida State University Library's Poet in Residence. His most recent book of poetry, In Memory of A Banyan Tree, Poems of the Outside World, 1985-2020, (Lost Horse Press) published in 2022.