Graduate of Berkeley and UCLA graduate school, Michael Datcher has been running the Anansi Writers Workshop at the World Stage since ‘93. A successful novelist, he has mentored numerous young poets and writers in the workshop – several who have gone on to garner 6-figure book deals and one of whom is now teaching at Harvard. He says of the workshop, “Everyone comes here, from dope dealers to engineers to nurses. It’s a kind of communal place because of the word.”