BIOGRAPHY

By the time Michele Bigley was ten, she had traveled through nearly every U.S. state, only to end up living in a tract home in California’s San Fernando Valley. After nine years of suburban living she boarded an international flight and discovered that she wanted to be a writer.

Forty passport stamps later, Michele had the travel experience, but no writing job. So she entered the MFA program at Antioch University to learn how to write. Soon her work was appearing in publications like Moxie, Tea Party, Coloring Book Anthology, Nine Lives Anthology, Student World Traveler and Prism Review.

The same week she discovered she was pregnant, Michele received a contract to write a major guidebook, Great Destinations: Kauai (Countryman Press, 2008). A few months after her son, Kai, was born, Michele strapped him to her back to research her second book, Northern California: An Explorer’s Guide (Countryman Press, 2009). She also contributes to Fodor's San Francisco. Her two iPhone travel applications include San Francisco Families and Napa and Sonoma With Kids. Currently Michele is at work on a new guidebook, Backroads and Byways of Northern California (Countryman Press, 2012) and an update of her Northern California: An Explorer’s Guide (Countryman Press,  2012). 

Michele contributes to the Los Angeles Times, Away.com, San Francisco Chronicle, Orbitz, Islands, Triporati, and Kia Ora, the in-flight magazine of Air New Zealand. 

Today you might find Michele exploring the eateries and playgrounds of her hometown, San Francisco, lounging on a tropical beach with her husband, Eddie, and their son, Kai, or perfecting her cheesy pasta recipe.

Kai, Eddie, and Michele