Michael P. Branch

Michael P. Branch (born December 6, 1963) is an ecocritic, writer, and humorist with over three hundred publications, including work in The Best American Essays, The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. An important member of the environmental and writing community, Western American Literature has described him as part of the "enduring procession of outdoor journalists."

His academic work has been called by reviewers as "an excellent entry to the field for the student or general reader who may have read considerably in the area but who is only beginning to make his or her way around the academic study of nature writing". The Best Read Naturalist was called "[a] much needed and thorough collection of Emerson's most significant nature writings."

When not writing, Branch enjoys activist and stewardship work, native plant gardening, bucking stovewood, playing blues harmonica, sipping sour mash, cursing at baseball on the radio, and walking at least 1,000 miles each year in the hills and canyons surrounding his high desert home.