Michael Kleber-Diggs (he/him/his) is a poet, essayist, literary critic, and arts educator based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His debut poetry collection, Worldly Things (Milkweed Editions 2021), won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, the 2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Poetry, the 2022 Balcones Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the 2022 Minnesota Book Award. His poems and essays appear in numerous journals and anthologies, and he received a 2018 Jerome Travel and Study grant. His work often concerns his family, his lived experience as a Black man in an anti-Black country, and barriers to living in full community.

During his residency, Kleber-Diggs will work on an essay collection related to his passion for swimming as a departure point for exploration of themes related to body, race, aging, and recreation as sanctuary. Camargo Foundation’s proximity to the Mediterranean Sea and the Parc National des Calanques will inform his experiences in those waters for his work-in-progress.

Photo by Ayanna Muata.