Michael Washburn is a New York-based writer. His work has appeared in numerous venues, including The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, NPR, Bookforum, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Observer, and The Guardian. He is a frequent contributor to The Boston Globe.

He is currently a research associate with the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Over the past decade of working in the public humanities, Michael has curated programming designed to facilitate public discourse on politics, history, music, and literature. He most recently served as assistant director of the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Prior to joining CUNY he was the assistant director of The University of Chicago’s Cultural Policy Center, and before that he worked at the Illinois Humanities Council. Before moving to New York, he taught literature and writing at DePaul University in Chicago.