John Mitchell

Who is John Mitchell?

Mitchell's interest in history began in the third grade, when he wrote his first book, a description of Civil War battles. Later, as owner of Leelanau Architectural Antiques, he studied the economic and historical forces which brought wealth, and subsequently antiques, to the Great Lakes region. Mitchell was born and raised in Orchard Lake, Michigan. He attended Birmingham Brother Rice High School and in 1975 received a degree in American Literature for the University of Michigan.

In the last decade, Mitchell has worked in as a speaker and Writer in Residence in over two hundred schools throughout the Great Lakes region. He has developed and effective series of lectures and workshops which use history to focus on the writing process. He is an approved writer with the Creative Writers in Schools program, a residency series sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs. Mitchell has also worked under grants for the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Foundation, and various grant and fund raising efforts of participating schools and libraries.