Michael Perry (Author of Population)

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Michael Perry

欧宝娱乐 Author

Website

Genre

Memoir, Humor and Comedy, Fiction

Member Since

January 2009

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Michael Perry is a New York Times bestselling author, humorist and radio show host from New Auburn, Wisconsin.

Perry鈥檚 bestselling memoirs include Population 485, Truck: A Love Story, Coop, and Visiting Tom. Raised on a small Midwestern dairy farm, Perry put himself through nursing school while working on a ranch in Wyoming, then wound up writing by happy accident. He lives with his wife and two daughters in rural Wisconsin, where he serves on the local volunteer fire and rescue service and is an amateur pig farmer. He hosts the nationally-syndicated 鈥淭ent Show Radio,鈥� performs widely as a humorist, and tours with his band the Long Beds (currently recording their third album for Amble Down Records). He has recorded three live humor albums in Michael Perry is a New York Times bestselling author, humorist and radio show host from New Auburn, Wisconsin.

Perry鈥檚 bestselling memoirs include Population 485, Truck: A Love Story, Coop, and Visiting Tom. Raised on a small Midwestern dairy farm, Perry put himself through nursing school while working on a ranch in Wyoming, then wound up writing by happy accident. He lives with his wife and two daughters in rural Wisconsin, where he serves on the local volunteer fire and rescue service and is an amateur pig farmer. He hosts the nationally-syndicated 鈥淭ent Show Radio,鈥� performs widely as a humorist, and tours with his band the Long Beds (currently recording their third album for Amble Down Records). He has recorded three live humor albums including Never Stand Behind A Sneezing Cow and The Clodhopper Monologues, is currently finishing his first young adult novel, and can be found online at .

Perry鈥檚 essays and nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Backpacker, Outside, Runner鈥檚 World, Salon.com, and he is a contributing editor to Men鈥檚 Health magazine. His writing assignments have taken him to the top of Mt. Rainier with Iraq War veterans, into the same room as the frozen head of Ted Williams, across the United States with truckers and country music singers, and鈥攐nce鈥攂uck naked into a spray-tan booth.

In the essay collection Off Main Street, Perry wrote of how his nursing education prepared him to become a writer by training him in human assessment, and he credits singer-songwriters like Steve Earle and John Prine with helping him understand that art need not wear fancy clothes. Above all, he gives credit to his parents, of whom he says, 鈥淎nything good is because of them, everything else is simply not their fault.鈥� His mother taught him to read and filled the house with books; his father taught him how to clean calf pens, of which Perry has written, 鈥渁 childhood spent slinging manure 鈥� the metaphorical basis for a writing career.鈥�

Perry has recently been involved in several musical collaborations, including as lyricist for Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Geoffrey Keezer, and as co-writer (with Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon) of the liner notes for the John Prine tribute album 鈥淏roken Hearts & Dirty Windows.鈥� Perry also collaborated with Vernon and Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne on a project that began when Vernon approached Perry and said, 鈥淪ay, you鈥檙e a nurse鈥︹€� The results were bloody, but then that was the point.

Of all his experiences, Perry says the single most meaningful thing he has ever done is serving 12 years beside his neighbors on the New Auburn Area Fire Department.

Mike says:

If I had to sum up my 鈥榗areer鈥� in one word, it would be gratitude. I get to write and tell stories all around the country, then come home to be with my family and hang out at the local feed mill complaining about the price of feeder hogs. It鈥檚 a good life and I鈥檓 lucky to have it. ...more

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Michael Perry鈥檚 books

Average rating: 3.92 · 19,720 ratings · 3,171 reviews · 25 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	Population: 485 3.93 avg rating — 5,792 ratings — published 2002 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Truck: A Love Story 3.95 avg rating — 3,366 ratings — published 2006 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting 3.94 avg rating — 3,325 ratings — published 2009 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Jesus Cow 3.61 avg rating — 2,407 ratings — published 2015 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Visiting Tom: A Man, a Highway, and the Road to Roughneck Grace 4.10 avg rating — 1,378 ratings — published 2012 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy 3.78 avg rating — 601 ratings — published 2017 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Scavengers 3.90 avg rating — 562 ratings — published 2014 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Off Main Street: Barnstormers, Prophets Gatemouth's Gator: Essays 3.88 avg rating — 536 ratings — published 2005 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Forty Acres Deep 4.30 avg rating — 470 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Roughneck Grace: Farmer Yoga, Creeping Codgerism, Apple Golf, and Other Brief Essays from on and off the Back Forty 4.19 avg rating — 269 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Michael Perry's Blog

Beverly Hills Cop Who

Reminded for the umpteenth time how this unplanned random form of self-employment of mine has led from cleaning calf pens in rural Nobbern to equally random moments like the one where I see this clip from Beverly Hills Cop and think, that guy and I had a wonderful talk about our lives and loves and marriages backstage one evening and then off we went on our separate ways. I don鈥檛 know what Mr.

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Michael鈥檚 Recent Updates

Michael Perry wrote a new blog post Beverly Hills Cop Who Reminded for the umpteenth time how this unplanned random form of self-employment of mine has led from cleaning calf pens in rural Nobbern to equally Read more of this blog post »
Apr 17, 2025 12:06AM · like

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Quotes by Michael Perry (?)

“Summer here comes on like a zaftig hippie chick, jazzed on chlorophyll and flinging fistfuls of butterflies to the sun.”
― Michael Perry, Population: 485

17 likes

“I deserve a swift kick in the shorts for all the times I've stubbornly wound my way through the library stacks, my mule head leading the way, searching fruitlessly for information a librarian could put in my hands in a matter of minutes.”
― Michael Perry

11 likes

“It (a singer's voice) sounds as if it was aged in a whiskey cask, cured in an Ozarks smokehouse, dropped down a stone well, pulled out damp, and kept moist in the palm of a wicked woman's hand.”
― Michael Perry

tags: wordsmith

8 likes

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