Michael Howell is a poet, journalist and philosopher.
He was born in Mississippi on December 28, 1951, under an astrological arrangement called a Grand Square. The sun and moon were in opposition and 90 degrees square from both Saturn and Venus which were also in opposition to each other.
Michael was raised in Texas, from the age of 3 to 16, about 500 miles south of the Alamo in the semi-tropical Rio Grande Valley, where he played in tomato fields that were a stone’s throw from Mexico along the muddy Rio Grande and the Gulf Coast and Padre Island were only an hour’s drive down river.
He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy from Pennsylvania State University in 1974, taking courses from Dr. Richard Gotshalk and Dr. Alphonso Lingis. He received his Master of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Montana in 1984, where he studied primarily under the direction of Dr. Henry Bugbee and Dr. John Lawry and worked in the Intensive Humanities Program which was sponsored by the philosophy department at the time.
Following graduation, Michael worked on a vegetable farm in France for a summer and from there traveled through Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia and Greece, Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan over the course of a year.
Returning to Montana, Michael worked as a dishwasher, homebuilder, boat builder, etc. and met his wife-to-be, Victoria, in Missoula. Two children came along with Victoria from a previous marriage, Rosalee and Jared. Michael and Victoria had another child together, Aubrey, in 1994.
In the meantime, along with several compatriots, they helped start a weekly newspaper in Stevensville, Montana in 1985 called the Bitterroot Star. Michael and Victoria were co-owners and publishers of the newspaper until selling the business in 2020.
The couple lives on the Burnt Fork of the Bitterroot River east of Stevensville in what is reputed to be the oldest continually inhabited house in the state, an old log home that was built in 1876, the year General Custer was killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. They raise a few animals and a splendid garden there along North Swamp Creek.
Michael served on the Board of Trustees of the North Valley Public Library District in Stevensville for ten years and was a founding member and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Bitterroot River Protection Association.