Michael Mott

Michael Charles Alston Mott (8 December 1930 – 11 October 2019) was a British-born American author. He produced eleven poetry collections, four novels and a renowned biography of Thomas Merton.

Life and career Mott was born in London in December 1930. His father, Eric Mott, was a solicitor and his mother, Margaret "Totts" Berger Mott, was a sculptor from Denver, Colorado.

Mott was educated in the United States and in England. After his service in the British Army, he attended Oriel College, Oxford, then art school and a year traveling in Europe and the Middle East. Mott then began his literary career taking a job in 1956 as the editor of trade journal, Air Freight. Between 1956-1966, Mott also worked as the assistant editor of the literary magazine: ADAM International Review, alongside editor Miron Grindea. In 1957, his first collection of poetry, The Cost of Living, was published.

In 1966, Mott was invited to teach at Kenyon College and to be the poetry editor of The Kenyon Review. While at Kenyon, Mott continued to publish poetry and fiction, publishing Helmet and Wasps and The Blind Cross.

During the 1970s Mott and his family lived in Atlanta, Georgia. Mott taught at Emory University as Writer in Residence. Both Michael and Margaret, a costume designer with The Alliance Children's Theater and weaver, were active in Atlanta's budding arts scene. In 1972, he cofounded the Callanwolde Readings Program, which highlights poets and writers, with poet Turner Cassity. In 1974, Mott received the Governors Award in Fine Arts from then Governor Jimmy Carter.

Mott was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1979. In 1978-1979, and again in 1985-1986 Mott was Writer-in-Residence at the College of William and Mary. He held a Christopher Award and other awards, and had an honorary doctorate from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame.

Published works

Nonfiction The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1984, 1986; , ; Sheldon Press, 1986 (U.K.);.

Fiction The Notebooks of Susan Berry, Andre Deutsch (U.K.), 1962; MacMillan Company (U.S.), 1963; Mayflower-Dell Paperbacks (U.K.), 1964. Helmet and Wasps, Andre Deutsch (U.K.), 1965; Houghton Mifflin (U.S.), 1966; Granada Paperbacks (U.K.), 1970. Master Entrick, Andre Deutsch (U.K.), 1965; Penguin Puffin (U.K.), 1969; Delacorte (U.S.), 1966; Dell Yearling (U.S.), Second Edition, 1986. The Blind Cross, Andre Deutsch (U.K.), 1969; Delacorte (U.S.), 1969.

Poetry The Cost of Living, Adam Books, London, 1957. The Tales of Idiots & New Exile, Adam Books, London, 1961. A Book of Pictures, Outposts Publication, London, 1962. Absence of Unicorns, Presence of Lions, Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1976. Counting the Grasses, Anhinga Press, Tallahassee, FL, 1980. Corday, Beacham Publishing, Washington, D.C., 1986. (Republished in paperback by Black Buzzard Press, Falls Church, VA, 1995.) Piero Di Cosimo: The World of Infinite Possibilities, Tinhorn Press, Atlanta, 1990. Taino (with drawings by Adrian Tri Diaz), Russell McKnight, Logan Elm Press, Columbus, OH 1992. Woman and the Sea, Selected Poems, Edited by Walton Beacham, and introduced by George Garrett, Anhinga Press, Tallahassee, FL., 1999. The World of Richard Dadd, Margie/Intuit House Press, Chesterfield, MO, 2005. , Winner of the 2004 Robert E. Lee & Ruth I. Wilson Poetry Book Award. Introduction by Dara Wier. Pyder Hundred, the Natural History of Harlyn (Poems), Palores Publications, Redruth, Cornwall, 2013. His poetry has also appeared in numerous journals including American Scholar, Georgia Review, Kenyon Review, Sewanee Review, Stand Magazine, Tar River Poetry Review, Times Literary Supplement, Verse, Visions International (where he was featured poet in several editions), Image, The Spectator, etc.

Debate In The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton, (2018) Hugh Turley and David Martin refute the account of Merton's death in The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton and other published biographies of Merton pointing to conspiracy theories of his death.

Awards Governor's Award in the Fine Arts, 1974 Robert E. Lee & Ruth I. Wilson Poetry Book Award, 2004

Resources The Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University houses The Michael Mott Collection. This includes drafts and notes for Mott’s published and unpublished works, both poetry and prose; journals, diaries and notebooks from 1944–1988; and correspondence with his publishers and with fellow writers from 1965-1989.