"A Master of Imagination"

About Michael Baldwin

Michael Baldwin is a 4th generation Texas author, an award-winning poet, multi-genre fiction writer, playwright, and creativity consultant. Baldwin was born and reared in Fort Worth, Texas. He currently resides in Benbrook, Texas.

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Poetry

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The Sublime Landscape and Beyond

A collaboration between two longtime friends who found they both appreciated each other’s creative work: one a painter, the other a poet. Michael Baldwin, an award-winning poet, has, in the past, written poems for artist Johnny Bowen and his family for various occasions. In 2009 Bowen asked Baldwin to write poems for several of his paintings that were to be in an upcoming show at the Arts Center of the Ozarks, Springdale, Arkansas. The project became a labor of love as Baldwin saw the high quality and inspired vision in Bowen’s paintings. In 2020 Baldwin decided it was time to publish a book dedicated entirely to Bowen’s art and Baldwin’s poems. The Sublime Landscape and Beyond is the result of many years of rewarding collaboration.

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The Quantum Uncertainty of Love

Poetry of the Entanglement of Science, Philosophy, and Spirit

This extraordinary collection of poems was born from a lifelong fascination with man’s spiritual nature as well as with several areas of scientific inquiry that led to an awareness of the entanglements that exist among science, philosophy, and spirit. Poet Michael Baldwin dares to ask “Who are we?” and “What is our purpose?” and “What about God?” (Includes ten full-color illustrations by California artist Andrew Ostrovsky.)

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Counting Backward From Infinity

Poems Informed by Science

Counting Backward From Infinity, Poems Informed By Science, won the Morris Memorial Chapbook Award, 2012, from the Alabama Poetry Society. This is a 29-page chapbook containing 8 poems based on science.

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Birds, Beasts, & Blossoms

Asian Art Prints & Poems

This is a book of 50 short poems in the Asian style by award-winning poet, Michael Baldwin. Each poem is based on a fine art print in the public domain. The prints are displayed on one page, the poem on the facing page. As indicated in his introduction, Mr. Baldwin has attempted to capture the spiritual quality of the images, using the Japanese concepts of aware (a sensitivity to the transience of things, which induces a gentle sadness) and yũgen (connoting a beauty that is deep, mysterious, and becomes one with the perceiver). However, a few of the poems are humorous and three are homages to the poets Basho, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams. This is a book of visual, emotional, and intellectual richness.

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Birds, Beasts, & Blossoms: 2nd Edition

Asian Art Prints & Poems

This is a book of 62 short poems in the Asian style by award-winning poet, Michael Baldwin. Each poem is based on a fine art print in the public domain. The prints are displayed on one page, the poem on the facing page. As indicated in his introduction, Mr. Baldwin has attempted to capture the spiritual quality of the images, using the Japanese concepts of aware (a sensitivity to the transience of things, which induces a gentle sadness) and yũgen (connoting a beauty that is deep, mysterious, and becomes one with the perceiver). However, a few of the poems are humorous and three are homages to the poets Basho, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams. This is a book of visual, emotional, and intellectual richness. This 2nd edition contains 12 new poems and is published in a larger 6×9 format so the images are larger than in the first edition.

 

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Scapes

Landscapes, Mindscapes, Heartscapes, Soulscapes

Scapes was the winner of the Edward Eakin Poetry Book Award, 2011, from the Poetry Society of Texas. It is an 85-page book containing 56 poems grouped in 4 categories: Landscapes, Mindscapes, Heartscapes, and Soulscapes. Scapes contains 4 double-page illustrations by artist Johnny Bowen, who also provided the cover illustration.

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Words In Concert

Poetry Inspired By Classical Music

Words In Concert is an anthology of poems inspired by classical music. It was edited and published by Michael for the Fort Worth Poetry Society. It contains 48 poems by 36 wonderful poets, including three Texas Poets Laureate and many highly-acclaimed, award-winning poets from the U.S. and internationally. It also contains six large illustrations on musical themes. Please note that all profits from the sale of this anthology will benefit the musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.n

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A Slam Poetry Manual

This is a short (32 page), easy to read, manual on how to write and perform slam poetry and how to produce a poetry slam. A Slam Poetry Manual was written because there were no How-To manuals on slam poetry at the time (2003). As an older slam poet and producer of numerous poetry slams, I wanted to encourage young people to become interested in writing and performing slam poetry. I also wanted to make it easier for them to produce poetry slams themselves. A Slam Poetry Manual defines a poetry slam, describes the history of poetry slams, provides the rules for a slam, and even a sample score sheet. The manual also provides guidance on how to write and perform slam poems so as to score well in slams. Please note that this book is no longer in publication and has thus become a collector’s item. There are only a limited number of copies (less than 100). Thus it lists on Amazon used for over $400 by other sellers. I purchased all remaining copies from ALA when they ceased publication. I now offer the few new copies remaining for $100 thru this website and will autograph those purchased here.

 

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Lone Star Heart

Lone Star Heart: Poems of a life in Texas, is a 120-page softcover 8 x 10 inch book, containing 55 poems about Texas. The book is divided into 4 sections: Texas weather, Texas places, Texas critters, and Texas folks. It also contains 15 full-color paintings by artist Johnny Bowen. Lone Star Heart was nominated for poetry book of the year for the Texas Institute of Letters.   From the Introduction:

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Sci-Fi Short Stories

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Passing Strange

Volume 1 of the Passing Strange Series

A short story collection for those who like a little weirdness in their lives. These stories will challenge your assumptions, your beliefs, and perhaps even your hold on reality. These are stories that would perhaps give even Stephen King the shivers.

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Surpassing Strange

Volume 2 of the Passing Strange Series

Surpassing Strange is volume 2 of the Passing Strange series, containing: 14 Science-Fiction short stories that will add some needed spice and weirdness to your life, providing just the strange perspective you need to challenge your ordinary reality.

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Beyond Passing Strange

Volume 3 of the Passing Strange Series

Volume 3 of the Passing Strange series: a 180 page book with 12 new, weird sci-fi tales to make you think, wonder, and want more. Did God and Satan foist Original Sin on Adam and Eve with the three-door Monte Hall mind trick? Why might a mother microwave her baby? Could texting while driving be an act of domestic terrorism? Is your too-beautiful-to-be-true lover possibly from another dimension? And Zbub, that fast-talking supernatural trickster with the stuffed chupacabra, is back! If you crave some intellectual challenge in your reading adventures, Beyond Passing Strange is your gateway to stories of mindful weirdness and madcap imagination.

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More Than Passing Strange

Volume 4 of the Passing Strange Series

Slide inside to savor 12 new short stories of science-fiction, and alluring strangeness from the guru of wonder-weird, Michael Baldwin. Two aliens go almost unnoticed amid a cosplay fair. What mischief are they up to? So, a pig, a bear, and an alligator walk into a bar—no joke. Could a sinister cabal control the world thru time travel? Has the advance of human progress been slowed thru history by alien intervention? How can a paralyzed patient protect himself from a supernatural monster? What happens when a sperm whale is sent to the Moon via Mary Poppins umbrella? Find out in More Than Passing Strange.

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Again Passing Strange

Volume 5 of the Passing Strange Series

Delight your taste for strangeness with these 11 stories of the wild, weird, and wonderful. Let your reality bend and descend into these mind-bending stories of plausible unreality, many based on known science.

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Adult & YA Fiction

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A Few Bricks Shy Of A Chevrolet

Twelve Short Strange Plays

A collection of nine one act flash plays and one short three-act play. All can be produced with one to four characters and little or no scenery or props. Each play can be done in five to twenty minutes. These flash plays all involve science-fiction or supernatural themes that comment on current social issues in society. Vampires, werewolves, angels, talking animals, and aliens abound. But these are not horror stories, they use strange characters to challenge current ideas and beliefs. These are plays for people who enjoy using their brains.

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Murder Music

Murder Music is a mystery-thriller for anyone who enjoys mayhem, music, and romance. Join Missy McKean, beautiful teen virtuoso who plays a haunted violin; Missy’s genius jazz mentor, Tiger Blakely; a demonic drug kingpin who wants Tiger very dead; Tiger’s dog, Bix, a canine Einstein; a mysterious red-haired Indian from outer space; and a bevy of craven killers on a crazy cross country jazz road trip that can only end in death and disaster. Due to its popularity, Murder Music has been expanded and improved in this second edition.

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Chronicles of Frank

Some Short Tall Tales of a Texas Rancher

The stories in this book chronicle some of the misadventures of my long-time friend, Frank, a rancher on the dry plains of North Texas. Frank is one of the most intelligent people of my acquaintance, but he is also one of the most gently outrageous characters I’ve had the privilege of knowing.

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Neanderthal Gita

Would you recognize a real Neanderthal who is living among us? They may be out there!

A halfling boy and his Neanderthal uncle are the only survivors from their strange, prehistoric culture. Now they are struggling to survive in modern society, with often violent, sometimes humorous, and always exciting results. Follow their exploits from the steppes of Siberia to exotic Kashmir, India, amid the clash of armies, religions, and criminal gangs. The half-Neanderthal boy matures into dangerous adulthood relying on his Neanderthal strengths and on the warrior philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita. Mystery, mayhem, and romance abound in one of the most extraordinary stories you will ever read.

In Neanderthal Gita by Michael Baldwin, is a novel of high adventure, in which you will experience what it was like to live as a Neanderthal hunter—a hunter of both wild animals and men.

Atmosphere Press Kindle Paperback

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Children's Books

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Space Cat

Space Cat is a 75 page, large format, children’s chapter book that povides scientifically accurate information about the Solar System in a fun-filled action adventure book for kids 7 and up. It contains 45 illustrations, some from NASA, and some original pictures by artist J. Darrell Kirkley.

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