Michael Lassell

Michael Lassell (born July 15, 1947, in New York City) is an American writer, editor and poet, who is best known for his contributions to the fields of design, travel, arts, Broadway theater, and LGBT studies.

Biography
Early life

Born on July 15, 1947 to Michael Joseph Lassell (1917–2006) and Catherine Lassell (1920–2015), Lassell grew up in Brooklyn, New York, later moving to New Hyde Park, New York when he was 3 years old.

Education and early career

Lassell graduated from Great Neck South High School in 1965. He then studied at Colgate University, earning his bachelor's degree in 1969, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude, with a major in English in the same year. He later obtained a M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts in 1973 and a second one from the Yale School of Drama in 1976. Lassell returned to the California Institute of the Arts to become a teacher in the School of Theater and Division of Criticism Studies from 1976 to 1978.

Literary career

Lassell's literary output includes poetry, stories, essays and reviews, which have been featured in newspapers, magazines, books, journals and anthologies both in the U.S. and elsewhere. These works have been translated into French, Dutch, Spanish, German, Catalan, and Braille. His anthologized poem How to Watch Your Brother Die was written during the onset of the AIDS epidemic.

Lassell worked as managing editor of L.A. Style in the 1980s and of Interview in 1990, as a theater critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and L.A. Weekly, and as the articles director of Metropolitan Home magazine from 1991 to 2009.

Personal life

Michael Lassell currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where he has lived since 1976.

Awards

 * John Gassner Prize in Criticism (1976)
 * Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry for Decade Dance (1990)
 * Nomination: Lambda Literary Award for Poetry for A Flame for the Touch That Matters (1998), The World in Us: Lesbian and Gay Poetry of the Next Wave (2001)
 * Society of American Travel Writers Foundation Lowell Award, Gold Medal for Our European Campaign (1999)