Michael S. Glaser served as Poet Laureate of Maryland from 2004-2009. He is a Professor Emeritus at St. Mary's College of Maryland where he served as both a professor and an administrator for nearly 40 years. A recipient of the Dodge Endowed Award for Excellence in Teaching, Glaser has also received the Columbia Merit Award for his service to poetry in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, and Loyola College's Andrew White Medal for his "lasting contributions to Maryland's life and rich literary tradition." A Maryland State Arts Council poet-in-the-schools for more than 25 years, he also served on the Maryland State Department of Education's Arts Advisory Committee, the Maryland Humanities' Board of Directors, and the Board of Directors for the Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center in Bangor, PA. With his wife, Kathleen, Glaser co-leads retreats that embrace the reading and writing of poetry as a means of self-reflection, personal growth, and purposeful engagement in the world.