I also tend to read the author's bios in novels and anthologies, especially if I enjoyed the work (in which case, I read the bio with some envy).
There's something clunky to me in the opening sentence. Maybe it's the grammar (which seems technically correct to me) or maybe it just seems like too much information. The rest of the bio has a nice flow to it that doesn't quite work here. I'm thinking something along the lines of "Michael Merriam was born in Michigan in 1965, but found his way to Minnesota in 1999, by way of Oklahoma and Texas." Something with more character?
The best bios I've read have some personality to them, so it's not just a fact sheet on the author. If you can get more of the tone of "an ordained cat" into the rest of the bio, I think it would be even stronger than it is now.
I also suggest combining some of the paragraphs, such as your publication history with the writers group info. And keep in mind that "He lives in Hopkins, Minnesota" at the end is semi-redundant with the opening paragraph, so you may combine them, ie: "Michael Merriam was born in Michigan in 1965, but found his way to Hopkins, Minnesota in 1999, by way of Oklahoma and Texas." (if that's correct, since I don't know if you've been in Hopkins since '99.
no subject
There's something clunky to me in the opening sentence. Maybe it's the grammar (which seems technically correct to me) or maybe it just seems like too much information. The rest of the bio has a nice flow to it that doesn't quite work here. I'm thinking something along the lines of "Michael Merriam was born in Michigan in 1965, but found his way to Minnesota in 1999, by way of Oklahoma and Texas." Something with more character?
The best bios I've read have some personality to them, so it's not just a fact sheet on the author. If you can get more of the tone of "an ordained cat" into the rest of the bio, I think it would be even stronger than it is now.
I also suggest combining some of the paragraphs, such as your publication history with the writers group info. And keep in mind that "He lives in Hopkins, Minnesota" at the end is semi-redundant with the opening paragraph, so you may combine them, ie: "Michael Merriam was born in Michigan in 1965, but found his way to Hopkins, Minnesota in 1999, by way of Oklahoma and Texas." (if that's correct, since I don't know if you've been in Hopkins since '99.
Just my two cents!