Michael Wolfe

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Michael Wolfe is the author of books of poetry, fiction, travel, and history.

Wolfe's writing has appeared in many magazines and has been recognized by the Academy of American Poets, the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, and the American Travel Writers Association. He has been a MacDowell Colony resident and a three-time recipient of the Amy Lowell Traveling Poets Scholarship.

His poetry has been collected in three small-press volumes over the years. He has read and lectured at Harvard, Georgetown, Stanford, SUNY Buffalo, Princeton, and many other universities. He has taught Writing and English at Phillips Exeter and Phillips Andover Academies, the California State Summer School for the Arts, and at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He holds a degree in Classics from Wesleyan University. For many years, he was the publisher of Tombouctou Books, Bolinas, California ^[1].

Wolfe has published three works on Islam: First, a pair of books from Grove Press on the pilgrimage to Mecca:The Hadj (1993), a first-person travel account, and One Thousand Roads to Mecca (1997), an anthology of 10 centuries of travelers writing about the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Shortly after September 11, 2001, he edited a collection of essays by American Muslims called Taking Back Islam: American Muslims Reclaim Their Faith (Rodale Press). Taking Back Islam won the 2003 annual Wilbur Award for Best Book of the Year on a Religious Theme. He is currently working on a novel, Just Look at You Now and translating a group of epitaphs from the Greek Anthology. He recently completed a fourth volume of poetry, entitiled Digging Up Russia.

In April 1997, Wolfe hosted a televised account of the Hajj from Mecca for Ted Koppel's "Nightline" on ABC.The program was nominated for Peabody, Emmy, George Polk,and National Press Club Awards. It won the annual Media Award from the Muslim Public Affairs Council. In February 2003, Wolfe worked with CNN-International television news reporter Zain Verjee to produce a new half-hour documentary on the Hajj. Wolfe has been featured on hundreds of regional and national radio talk shows. He writes an occasional column for Beliefnet, a Web journal of the world’s religions.

In 1999, Wolfe, along with his charismatic partner Alex Kronemer, created an educational media foundation focused on promoting peace through the media, Unity Productions Foundation. UPF produced its first full-length film, which Michael and Alex co-created, co-produced, and co-executive edited, called Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, a two-hour television documentary on the life and times of the Prophet Muhammad. The film received a national broadcast on PBS and subsequent international broadcasts in a dozen languages on National Geographical International. It was awarded a Cine Special Jury Award for Best Professional Documentary in its category of People and Places. Two more documentaries have followed: a two-hour PBS film on Medieval Spain and a ninety minute film on the life of an African Prince abducted into slavery in early Mississippi.