My name is Lucía M. Polis (she/he), but I write under the pen name Michael G. Khmelnitsky. I am a neuroqueer poet, translator, and editor. I hold a Ph.D. in literary translation studies and I have been writing and translating poetry since 1996.
I was born in Moscow, in the imaginary country known as the U.S.S.R., lived in Israel—during the Gulf War and First Intifada—and in Canada, and then worked in Japan and the United States.
Before the COVID Pandemic, I visited more than twenty-five countries. At any given point in time, I know between three and five languages. I have written more than one thousand poems, some of which have appeared in Uprooted, The Liar, and my poetry collections We Were Hateful People, and The Love of a Good Man.
I live on Vancouver Island. In time free from work, I agonize over the written line, haunt poetry evenings in dazzling dresses, set boundaries, love friends, tend to plants, keep house, take walks, and go on long drives to nowhere in particular.