Mitchell Nobis is a writer, a teacher, a dad, an aging rec-league basketball player held together by duct tape & hope, a transplanted farmboy, a former drummer, and probably some other things. He lives in Metro Detroit with his wife and children and the family dog.

His debut poetry collection, The Size of the Horizon, or, I Explained Everything to the Trees, is now available from Match Factory Editions. He has a number of poems and teacher essays out in the world—see the “Poetry & Prose” page for links to some of them.

He is seeking representation for his novel about a former basketball recruit who finally gets a lucky shot at professional basketball a decade later. It’s a 61,000-word page turner of a sports novel with basketball, personal, and family storylines. If you happen to be a literary agent and like the sounds of that, please reach out!

He facilitates the Teachers as Poets group for the National Writing Project in the online Write Now Teacher Studio space. He hosts Wednesday Night Sessions and Inbox Wisdom, two interview/reading series for the KickstART Farmington arts organization. For years he tweeted jokes about not being able to attend the AWP writers conference and attending “Not at AWP” instead while doing laundry. Then Jared Beloff said “Let’s make that a thing,” and they co-founded NAWP. He is on the poetry staff of The Weight Journal. Previously he was a poetry reader for Bracken Magazine and has guest-edited at other literary magazines.

He has an MA in teaching English but no MFA. He took a couple of creative writing classes at the local community college once, though. His poetry has been nominated for the Best of the Net awards and the Pushcart Prize. His short story “How Many Times We Pray” was his first fiction nomination for the Best of the Net.

He is a past president of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English and a former co-director of the Red Cedar Writing Project, where he led dozens of professional learning events for teachers of writing. He created the RCWP Writers Workshop and facilitated it for its first eight years. He co-authored Real Writing: Modernizing the Old School Essay, a book for writing teachers.

Find him on Bluesky and probably some others at @MitchNobis.

Author Bio: Here’s the shorter version you get some variation of if you’re a lit mag editor, poetry press publisher, or literary agent:

Mitchell Nobis is a writer and K-12 public school teacher in Metro Detroit where he lives with his family and dog. His fiction has appeared in Porcupine Literary, Flyover Country, Rejection Letters, and Psaltery & Lyre, who nominated his short story “How Many Times We Pray” for Best of the Net. His poetry has been in HAD, Bear Review, Whale Road Review, The Night Heron Barks, and over 50 other literary magazines and has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. His debut poetry collection The Size of the Horizon, or, I Explained Everything to the Trees published in 2025 with Match Factory Editions. His other poetry manuscripts have been runner-up for the Hopper Poetry Prize, finalist for the Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize, and semi-finalist for the Philip Levine Prize. He facilitates the Teachers as Poets group for the National Writing Project, co-founded the Not at AWP (NAWP) reading series, serves as a poetry editor at The Weight Journal, and runs a couple of interview series online. For more, see mitchnobis.com or find him falling apart on a basketball court.

_{(Top photos courtesy of Dwayne Hayes at KickstART Farmington. Bottom photo courtesy of Franklin Nobis.)}

© 2026 Mitchell Nobis