Michael Antman is the author of the novel Cherry Whip (ENC Press, 2004), described by reviewers as “a terrific and fascinating character study,” “moving and sexy and funny in fresh ways,” “humane and warm,” “a great tragicomedy,” and “a marvelous novel.” Cherry Whip is currently in production as a feature film.

He is a staff writer and book reviewer for the leading online review site PopMatters, also has written book reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times and Bookslut, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. For Bookslut, he has written reviews of Haruki Murakami’s Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman; Patrick McGrath’s Ghost Town; and famed designer Chip Kidd’s collection of book covers, Chip Kidd: Book One. He also authored a monthly column, “Afterwords,” that reconsidered works by John Steinbeck, Loren Eiseley, Conrad Aiken, Thomas Savage, and Wallace Stegner.

For PopMatters, which has more than 1,000,000 unique visitors a month, his published and upcoming reviews consider, among others, recent novels by Annie Dillard, Alice Sebold, Kurt Andersen, Paul Theroux, Phillip Roth, Ethan Canin, Paul Auster and Annie Proulx. He also writes on DVDs and other topics for PopMatters.

His new non-fiction book, Searching for the Seagull Motel, is represented by Michele Rubin at Writers House, and he is working on a new novel, Adelaide, the second chapter of which was published in the online magazine The2ndHand. He also is a widely published poet whose work has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, and has written plays and screenplays.

He is a regular contributor to the group blog When Falls the Coliseum, a “journal of American culture (or lack thereof.)”

In addition to his literary writing, Michael Antman writes regularly for the popular online marketing site, MarketingProfs, and is currently working on a new marketing book, The Use and Abuse of Agencies.

As a long-time marketing consultant and President of the consulting firm McSweeney & Antman, he has conducted branding, positioning and marketing analyses on behalf of many of America’s leading business organizations, including Deloitte & Touche, Humana, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Mexico City Stock Exchange, IBM/Integrion, and Citicorp Savings. For these clients and others, he has created international print, Internet, radio and television advertising campaigns; branding analyses; marketing plans; magazine articles; executive speeches; brochures; annual reports; websites and other materials.

One of his film projects, Coming Through the Storm, a documentary he researched and wrote on behalf of the National Association of Independent Insurers, covered the same geographic area and some of the same subject matter as Seagull Motel. The film won many awards, including the Silver Trumpet Award, Chicago Publicity Club; the Silver Star Award, IASC; Second Place, Houston International Film Festival; and Second Place, New York Film Festival.

He is the former vice president of marketing for the Arkidata Corporation, and also spent two and a half years in Japan, where he conducted cross-cultural training, wrote and recorded textbook materials (for adults and children) for the Aeon Intercultural Corporation, and wrote a monthly column on business English in the form of a fictionalized serial for Be-Ing, a major Japanese business publication.

He is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and also attended Oxford University.