Born outside Royston, England, Cambridgeshire in 1954, Michael H. Clay has traveled the world, made music, poetry, plays, and worked in corporate America, but his primary badge of self-identification is his art. Having made his home and made a living in many places throughout the southwestern United States, Europe, and Asia, Clay credits his experiences during these years of peripateticism with helping to shape his world view, and by extension his writing and literary personality. Despite a lifelong personal connection to the arts and writing, it is only since 1997, when he picked up his pen for the first time following a 17 year creative hiatus, that he has developed into the highly creative and prodigiously active member of the local literary scene that he is today. Now a member of the Lakewood Poetry Consortium, he is the author of hundreds of poems, ten short stories, and four one-act plays, with further literary endeavors in the works at all times.

In 2008, Michael appeared as a featured poet in the Death List Five - sponsored event known as Fusion, a free-form literary and artistic endeavor done in collaboration with Chris Zimmerly and local poetry / improvisational jazz group Swirve. Later that same year, he appeared as one of several featured readers at the Death List Five “Reading the Beats” event, adding his to the chorus of voices celebrating the poetic and literary contributions of the influential Beat Poets of the 1950's.

Michael plays harmonica and sings with Pecan Tree, a local band specializing in what he describes as “free form poetry with music,” or “Bluesy Funkified Folk Jazz with Poetry Infused Hootennany.” He has taken part in various open mics around the Dallas area since 2003, and can usually be found on the first Wednesday of every month at the Absinthe Lounge, where he is a regular contributor to Johnny O's Mad Swirl open mic.

"Poet, playwright, raconteur, musician, artist, gadabout hi-tech professional and erstwhile friend and family man."