Michael Angelo Tata received his M.A. in Creative Writing/Poetry from Temple University, his M.A. in Liberal Studies from the New School for Social Research, and his Ph.D. in English Literature through the CUNY Graduate Center. His poetry and criticism have appeared in the journals LinQ, Blood Lotus, Origami Condo, M/C, Ugly Couch, Lit, Lungfull, eye: rhyme, kenning, Bad Subjects, Found Object, Rhizomes and to the quick, as well as the Critical Studies compilation From Virgin Land to Disney World: Nature and Its Discontents in the USA of Yesterday and Today (New York: Rodopi, 2001), the Madonna Studies anthology Madonna’s Drowned Worlds: New Approaches to Her Cultural Transformations (Newcastle [UK]: Ashgate, 2004), and the forthcoming collections The Globetrotting Shopaholic (Ankara, Turkey) and Nervous States: Modernity and the Neurological Self (Oxford, UK). His first chapbook of poems, The Multiplication of Joy into Integers, won Blue Light Press’s 2003 poetry prize. His poetry has also appeared in the collections This New Breed: Bad Boys, Gents and Barbarians 2 (Port Orchard [US]: Windstorm, 2004) and Bordered Sexualities (San Diego: Hyperbole Books & San Diego UP, 2008).

In addition, he has performed as Writer and Copy Supervisor for Fortune 50 companies (primarily Pfizer, PriCara, Hewlett-Packard, AARP, American Express and Dell). He also possesses a formal background in Biology, and has worked closely on trichromacy theories of vision and on the effect of neurotoxins on spinal cord structure and function. He has taught various interdisciplinary seminars through the departments of English, Comparative Literature and Women's Studies at the City University of New York's Hunter College. His courses focused specifically on the work and cultural importance of rapper Tupac Shakur, socialite Quentin Crisp and pop icon Madonna, among others. On the basis of the overwhelming success of these seminars, he was described as "John Keats meets Janice Dickinson" (Dean Judith Friedlander) and awarded the Presidential Award for Teaching Excellence in 2002.

"Michael Angelo's brilliant sequence showcases a mind unafraid to dance on the edge. Self-posessed, disembodied, the poems radiate scientific poise. Steeped in theory, they breathe a lyric ether, beyond reproach or interpretation" (Wayne Koestenbaum, blurb for The Multiplication of Joy into Integers).

"In his scholarly and rigorous contribution...Michael Angelo gives us a glimpse into the world of Andy Warhol’s implication into a world full of chemicals, narcotics, amphetamines, (mass) consumption and of course, art, film and existential wandering. Andy Warhol: When Junkies Ruled the World is evidence of rigorous scholarship and years of persistent research, coupled with the skills required to weave fragments into a cogent whole" (Samar Habib, Nebula Editor-in-Chief).